All Forum Posts by: Tyler Kafka

Is There Any Way We Use an FHA Loan for a House Hack (as our primary residence) While Keeping Our Rent-Controlled Apartment (as a secondary)?
Hi everyone,

My wife and I are preparing to start our real estate investment journey and are particularly interested in house hacking using an FHA loan. We've been soaking up as much information as possible, but we're hitting a wall on a few nuanced questions that we hope the BiggerPockets community can help with.

Our Situation:

• >> We currently live in a rent-controlled apartment in New Jersey, just outside of Manhattan. We love it— and it’s SIGNIFICANTLY below market rate. For context, our rent is 2-3 times less than the market rate (if we were to give it up, we would never again be able to find anything comparable in this area). Also - as you will read below, we intend to move back to this apartment down the road.
  
• >> I have a mostly remote job, but my wife is required to commute into Manhattan daily.
  
• >> We're exploring the idea of purchasing a 2–4 unit multifamily property in NJ or NY using an FHA loan to take advantage of the low down payment and favorable terms.
  
• >> Due to current market conditions, we believe the property would need to be farther outside the NYC metro area in order to cash flow—far enough that it would make it difficult/highly burdensome for my wife to commute from there every day.
• >> While I would be able to live in the FHA property most of the time (given remote work), my wife would prefer to be able to stay in the apartment part-time / between long work days.
• >> Our preferred strategy: Primary the multifamily for a year to satisfy FHA's primary residence requirement, house hack to offset costs, then eventually rent out the entire property and RETURN full-time to our current apartment (Note - We CAN afford to continue paying rent on our apartment in addition to the residual mortgage costs during that year).
  
  

The Big Question:

Is there any possible way for us to somehow keep the apartment while also meeting the FHA’s primary residence requirement with the multifamily property (still allowing us to keep our current rent-controlled apartment for occasional use during that time and be able to return to that apartment after the required one-year period?)

Any insights or advice—especially from folks who’ve navigated similar dual-living situations—would be hugely appreciated!

Thanks in advance!