House hack #1 to house hack #2 -FHA questions

[Erin Anderegg]

Hello!

My husband and I have lived in our duplex while house hacking for about 6 months and are initiating plans for our next house hack. Our current mortgage is an FHA loan where we put down 3.5%. We want to do another FHA loan for the next property, but I know you can only have 1 FHA loan at a time.

Do we need to refinance the duplex to a different loan product before searching for the next property? If so, has anyone had success with high LTV loans in this case? I haven't had the place appraised since we were under contract, but I doubt it's increased enough where we have 20-25% equity at this point.

[Eric Chiang]

I'm running into this problem right now actually haha. I've heard that refinancing out of the FHA loan is the most common.

I would double check the logistics behind these, but some potential solutions:

1. If the FHA loan is only under your name, could your husband get an FHA loan for the next property?

2. If you are looking at SFR to owner-occupy and rent out the other bedrooms, 5% down conventional loans may be an option

3. Consider NACA program if possible

I'm sure others may have more experience/creative solutions, but those are some that come to mind. 

Happy investing!