When you house hack, how serious do you have to be about living in the location? Could you live at the house and somewhere else? Does it have to be 6 months and a day? Do I just have to leave a room open?
I would add to Nicholas L's comment that if you intend to house hack, the benefits you receive from that practice come from the fact that you have a place to live, while tenants pay your 'rent'. If you are not living in that place very much of the year, you now have a vacant unit that is wasting money and it's not really a house hack anymore.
@Francis Figueroa the answer is - it depends. If you buy with a loan that is contingent on you living in it... you'd want to live in it. If you bought it with different financing that did not have such a requirement, and you lived in it part of the time, that would be fine. Typically house hacking involves financing that only owner occupants are eligible for... but it doesn't have to. You would just need a larger down payment.
I would add to Nicholas L's comment that if you intend to house hack, the benefits you receive from that practice come from the fact that you have a place to live, while tenants pay your 'rent'. If you are not living in that place very much of the year, you now have a vacant unit that is wasting money and it's not really a house hack anymore.
You have to have the intent to live in the property for a year to get an owner occupant loan. However, life things happen and it doesn't always work out that way. But if it is your primary residence (state homestead, address on license, get your mail there) and you live there much of the year then you should have no issues.
When you house hack, how serious do you have to be about living in the location? Could you live at the house and somewhere else? Does it have to be 6 months and a day? Do I just have to leave a room open?
The fastest growing instances of fraud in the mortgage industry is occupancy fraud. Be prepared to live in the property for a year if you're house hacking and using conventional, FHA or VA financing. Lots of good comments on this thread with thoughts to ponder.