My house dilemma seeking guidance if possible

[James Woods]

so I bought a house with fha about three years ago and lived in it for a year. I moved out of the property and rented it out and it is still rented out currently with positive cash flow( don’t want sell). The issue I am having is I am looking to get another primary residence, but most of the research I have ran into says I can’t get another fha and I’ll have to go conventional with at minimum 10 percent down or more. Can anyone shed some light on the issue? Even if I go conventional, is there a way to get away with 5 percent down or less? I have a decent credit score at 730 if that helps with evaluating the situation and live in the Chicago land area. Any information on the matter would be greatly appreciated 

[Zack Karp]

I think the first question here is that we don't know if we are talking about a 1-unit property, or a 2-4 unit property.

@James Woods here are your options:

1. You can buy another primary residence 1-unit property with Conventional financing with 5% down.  (3% down is either for 1st time homebuyers, or if you can qualify for Home Possible or HomeReady, which both have an income cap that may be unlikely to meet carrying 2 properties, but something to look into.)

2. You can buy another primary residence 2-unit property with 15% down.

3. You can buy another primary residence 3-4 unit with 20% down.

4. You can refinance your existing property out of FHA into Conventional, and free up your FHA eligibility to buy another primary residence 1-4 unit with 3.5% down. In order to do this, since this property is now an investment property, if your existing property is a 1-unit, the max LTV is 85%, and if it's a 2-4 unit, the max LTV is 75%.

Hope that helps.  Best of luck!