All Forum Posts by: Ryan Matthews

From my experience, the only leg you have to stand on in regards to justifying why this purchase should be approved would be along the lines of you needing to relocate for work or family or some other situation that made it unrealistic for you to maintain your SFH as a primary residence and you don't want to rent.

I've heard of this, but only in relation to FHA loans. Their purpose is to promote home ownership by providing low downpayment options. If you're using FHA to hack into a fourplex and you already own a SFR, they're going to scrutinize you based on that motive and not approve you. From my understanding, assuming you're going FHA...

Agreed, you do not need to refinance, however you will need to notify your county assessor and make sure you're no longer being granted any 'home owner exemption' on your real estate taxes. In Idaho there is a substantial concession made to your county taxes if your property is your primary residence. Turning that residence into a rental property will void that designation and allowing it to remain is fraud.

They turned you away most likely because you declared yourself as an investor. HUD homes are generally for owner-occupants only because the whole point of HUD is to promote home ownership. After a round of owner-occupied bids, the listing agent will open up the 'investor pool' if a satisfactory offer was not received from owner-occupants. If you're not planning on occupying the residence as your primary then you'll have a tough time landing the contract. That's just been my experience.

I'm an amateur flipper who completed his first flip and listed the property for sale. The property was purchased using a traditional owner-occupied mortgage and is a SFR. I am currently living in the property as my primary residence. I made a mistake and over built the property for the area (damn you HGTV). My wife has really fallen in love with the property and now wants to stay here for a while. I'm looking to recapture some of the equity and my immediate thought is to get a HELOC but because the house was listed for sale, the larger financial institutions I work with will not touch it until it has been off the market for 6 months. I'm not interested in refinancing because rates have increased and there are a lot of fees involved. What other options are available to me? What would you do?

If your mortgage was FHA then LTV would only be recognized from the original value. In other words, you wouldn't be able to purchase a home with 3.5% down, wait a year for the market to appreciate, and then request PMI be removed. At that time their rules were 78% LTV AND payments made for minimum 5 years, not one or the other, both. However if your mortgage was not FHA then disregard everything I said :) You can always refinance out of it though, just have all the fees and costs associated with it, but rates are still low!

Once you own the home you're free to do anything you damn well please. There are of course exceptions to this including easements, CC&Rs, historical district restrictions, etc. But there is nothing fraudulent or illegal about you verbally declaring an intention to the seller (not the lender) and then changing your mind down the road. No probable recourse coming from the seller in my opinion. (I am not a lawyer).

Yes you would still need to file to illustrate that you're taking the loss

If you make money in another state, you pay that state's income tax....

It's pretty common for people to include in their offer that the seller pay for the buyer's closing costs. If you can't afford the closing costs out of pocket or are already maxing out your loan proceeds and therefore can't finance the closing costs, then negotiating this when you submit your offer is your only other option. Personally, I refuse to pay for a buyer's closing costs and never have entertained those offers, but there are some motivated sellers who will consider it.