Accessory apartments and in-law suites

[Megan Frank]

My husband and I own a 2 family home and live in one half and rent out the other. We would like to move to another multifamily and do the same thing. The properties we own now are all under my name and my husband has never purchased a property. The lender I spoke with said since we are moving from a primary residence in NH (even if it has an apartment as well), into a multifamily home we would need 20-25% down payment, since it is considered an investment opportunity. The silver lining is that we qualified for a single family residence and can go FHA again with only 3.5% down. NH is passing a new law next year, in June of 2017, making it legal to rent accessory apartments in your home to people other than family members. There are a few properties that I am interested in that are a single family home and then there is an extra living space (finished barn on one, basement apartment on another, former nursery on another) and my lender says he thinks I could purchase one of these and go FHA. My plan would be to eventually rent out the single family portion of the house as well as the in-law space and have 2 income streams from the one property, just like a multifamily. The rents around the seacoast area are sky high, so it seems like this would be a viable option. Has anyone else done this? Any reason we shouldn't? Thanks!