Owner occupant property - Can you rent ?

Question

Hey all,

I bought a property last year (cash) for my parents as owner occupant from homepath. My father is on the deed as the owner occupant. At that time he was planning to relocate and retire in Florida. We have renovated the property to his needs and spent good amount of cash on it already.

Unfortunately his financials have changed over the year and he is no longer planning to relocate at least for the next 3 years.

What are my options with the property. It has been sitting empty for months now. He is paying all utilities because it will deteriorate the house if A/C is not running in Florida.

He is also paying rent where he is now so if we could rent this place out if would offset that cost.

I am not sure if we can rent a home that was initially purchased for owner occupant. I do not want to get into any legal issue over $1200 of monthly rent but that cash flow would help him get out faster form his financial issue.

What are my options ? Thanks a lot.

Account Closed · Answer

I am not familiar with Homepath but, in general, you can rent out a home that you originally purchased to live in. You would need to contact your city/county to find out what the regulations are--they may require inspections, etc.  Also, if you rent it out for a number of years, there will be tax implications when you go to sell it that you will want to be aware of up front.