Need advice for property #2

[Susanna Perenboom]

Need advice please!

I'm a little stuck in my investing and need some thoughts from those more experienced. I am a veterinarian and did a ‘house hack' last year with a single family home that has an attached ADU (the home and ADU are both 950 sqft so this set up is similar to a duplex). I got fantastic tenants for the ADU and I still currently live in the main home portion with my fiancée who is a real estate agent.

Right now I am hoping to expand my portfolio but am having trouble finding the right strategy/loan. I thought I qualified for the doctors through Keybank which would have allowed me a 0% down payment and no mortgage insurance, but they recently told me I need to be a vet specialist which I am not. Sad. I already used an FHA to purchase the home I'm in or I'd use that loan. I don't qualify for homeready. A conventional loan could only get me a SFR for 5% down and with mortgage insurance (I'd have to move into this new property which is fine) but the mortgage insurance and high home prices here in Portland, OR make this not a very profitable move. My fiancée could qualify for an FHA but probably for not enough to get us into a duplex/triplex. Saving for 20% down is unrealistic as I have six figure student loans at 6.8% interest that we're trying to pay off like crazy.

Any ideas for me to expand my portfolio?

Thanks guys!

[Scott Radetich]

On home purchases where I will be moving into the home, I like to use 80/10/10 loans. You get a normal market rate on the 80% loan, the 10% loan is a bit higher rate but its less than paying PMI, and you are in a home with only putting 10% down. That saves a lot of money for renovations. And you can refi those two loans a year or two later into one loan. However, If you are buying a property you won't be living in, you will be putting 20-25% down.

As for where to go for loans, Key bank is pretty strict on their required boxes to be checked.  I've used Security National in the past.  They will do 80/10/10's.