House-hacking a single family and landlord experience.

[Elizabeth Richter]

After I’m done with school in August, I’m thinking about buying a single family living in it for a year or two and renting out the other rooms.

After doing this, I’d like to move out of the single family and keep it as a rental, then repeat with a small multi family (2-4units).

Here’s my question: does house-hacking a single family as described above give me landlord experience in the eyes of a lender?

I believe that if I kept the single family while trying to buy a multi that I would need that income from the single to lower my DTI to qualify for a multi family home loan.

But if house hacking that single family doesn’t “count” as rental experience in the eyes of a lender then I might as well save a little longer and just start with a multi family right?

[Aaron K.]

Unless you are planning on buying this SFR cash you will have the perfect opportunity to ask the lender this question when you go to get pre-approved. It may very well depend on the lender as to whether it counts as experience or if experience is even necessary.