Financing Challenges for Third House Hack - Solutions?

[Michael Vialpando]

Hey everyone! Thanks a bunch in advance for any help or support.

My wife and I have successfully acquired two house hacks in the last two years. We have typically rented the the main house (or a portion of it and got roommates) and then short term rented (Airbnb'd) the guesthouse. We were fortunate to have enough W2 income to purchase the second house hack without needing any rental income, leases, or money showing on our schedule E.

Now... We are in a different spot and it's gotten more tricky. We are currently living in the basement unit and renting out both the main level and the converted, detached garage studio. We are making fantastic gross revenue and doing very well with managing our systems and expenses to provide great stays for our guests. So we are ready for moving on to our third house hack and our goal is to be moved into another nearby property in Colorado Springs (either 80903, 80904, or 80909) and replicating what we've done.

Here's where we are running into some speed bumps. My wife in school to become a Nurse Practitioner and has cut her RN job back to one 12-hour shift per week. Combine that reduction in W2 income with the debt from our two properties and we are finding it hard to qualify for more than $300k. We have found one lender in the Denver area that will take our one year of Airbnb income from the first guesthouse - which is great. However, since we had two roommates in the first property in the main house with us, and since we correctly reported their income on our taxes, we are being told that we are unable to use a lease on the main house since there has already been income reported on it (only $9800 for 2018 since the roommates were only there half of the 2018 year).

Apparently we are able to use leases for our new property since nothing has been reported on our taxes yet since we bought the second property earlier this year in 2019. Which is great to be able to use 75% of market rent for our two units at the second property. What is hurting us most, is the deductions we claimed on our first property's guesthouse and the fact that we had roommates and reported income on the main house - which was MUCH less than if we had rented the house as a WHOLE for the ENTIRE calendar year.

We are excited to figure out how to navigate our way to our third SFR with a guesthouse or ADU that we can buy with conventional 5% down, owner-occupied financing and continuing to house hack our way to a strong financial future!

Any ideas or suggestions from other house hackers or creative investors and lenders would be amazing.

Thanks everyone!

#househackforlife! #almostreadytohousehacklikebrandoninmaui