All Forum Posts by: Michael N.

Not sure if Tennessee has special rules, but you're allowed to FHA a multi-family. Many lenders don't have experience with this and will tell you no. My lender told me this till I sent them a link explaining they were allowed. I received the pre-approval shortly after :)

I'm looking to do the same thing. I think one of the biggest benefits to using it is that it's a great way to get around the 6 months of reserves. A lot easier to have 6 months reserves if you're not using any cash on the 20-25% down.

Haha. This made my morning. Thank you.

Charles Huang is this happening at your office tomorrow in Tysons?

I think this comes down to buying cheap properties. If I buy a 500k property at the 1% rule, vs five 100k properties at the 1% rule, the five properties will cost a lot more in maintenance/repairs. This also shows the flaw in using a fixed percentage for calculating maintenance. I see the majority of people on here posting about cheap properties (100-200k) and I never understood why people are going through the whole deal/mortgage process in order to cashflow a few hundred dollars a week.

I've been working 2 full time IT jobs for a year and a half (first 6 months to pay off student loans), house hacking a duplex for a year, pending offer on a 6 unit apartment building right now, going to take a HELOC after closing on the 6 unit (duplex appraised for 100k more than I bought it for), and use the HELOC to buy a quad, and after that get an FHA on another multi unit. (3 new properties within this year), and that should be able to net 5k a month. Retire.

Upen Patel thanks for the info. I've brain stormed this for a little bit and have a new plan. I work in IT, very easy to find a job. I can find a job in a new city, house hack, stay there for 6-12 months, repeat in a new city. Great for diversification also. Thoughts?

Hi all, I've been house hacking a duplex for over a year (fulfilled one year occupancy) and was in the process of qualifying to house hack another multi-unit, but the 2 lenders I've talked to won't qualify me because they say the new property needs to be > 50 miles away to justify another primary residence loan. They said additionally, because I'm looking at quads from a duplex, it looks like I'm trying to get investment properties for a lower interest rate, even though I plan to live there for at least a year. Any advice?

Bryan, I did the FHA route on a duplex in the DC area last year. It was in decent shape, and didn't run into any major issues in the inspection. I ended up renting out a room in my unit as well and have been living for free ever since. In my opinion, the appraisal when buying isn't a real appraisal (they can see the purchase price), I refinanced a year after buying and was able to take out money and have 20% equity! (Based off appraisal of over 100k above purchase price) Make sure it's a good value, and you're golden. I'm prepping for the next deal outside the DC area now. Best of luck. -Mike

I have a couple units in the DC metro area, and want to get involved in a bulk deal in another market. Depending on the time frame, anywhere from 500k-1.2 mil. Lots of 1099 income, will have to wait till this tax season to qualify for the higher end. Typical DC area government contractor, my cubicle isn't very comfortable.

-Mike