Starting Out using FHA Loans, Refinancing, and LLCs

[Roger Mejia]

Hello Bp community,

My brother and I want to get into real estate investing soon, as partners. We want to start out by getting a 3 - 4 unit property using an FHA loan and use one unit to house hack here in Providence. Then, after the obligated one-year owner occupancy period, we want to refinance it into a conventional loan in order to get another FHA loan for a more spacious 2 or 3 unit to live in until we eventually move on to full cash investments in other markets.

I wanted to know if this can all be possible under an LLC or if the deeds can be quitclaimed to an LLC while the mortgage responsibility remains on our names during the process? If not, is there a way we can do this without an LLC (at least until we convert the second FHA to conventional) and still protect ourselves from liabilities for the first few years of investing?

Any advice or similar strategies?