FHA First Tome Home Buyer Benefit

[Eric Olsen]

I'm looking to buy my first investment property soon. I want to utilize the benefit of low $ down on your first FHA loan to buy a place locally and house hack. The problem is I live in Washington, DC and the numbers here for any form of real estate investing are horrible. I don't think I can make solid returns even through a house hack.

This has led me to look at other markets to acquire property in, but I worry about wasting my first time home buyer benefit. Do you know if the first time home buyer benefit through FHA only applies to permanent residences that you live in, or would I lose it if I acquired a rental property as my first property and didn't live in it?

[Russell Brazil]

Returns are horrible? Well somehow I keep getting rich on these horrible returns. BTW, I average a 23% IRR on my DC area portfolio.