Real Estate Investment Planning

[Wendy Banks]

Hi BP! I am new to the community. I have been enjoying all of the information I have been learning about real estate investment, which has also caused my husband and I to have a few questions as we think about our next investment. I currently own a home that I purchased in 2018, which was my primary residence but I am in the process of getting it rented it out. My husband purchased a home in 2015, which we have temporarily moved to in order to fix it up and get it ready to rent. Once this house is fixed up we would like to rent it out and move. Once this happens, we would have two rental homes. The home I purchased only has my name listed on the mortgage, deed, etc. The home he purchased only has his name listed on these as well. We are looking to purchase a home in about 9 months so that my husband can work on his credit. For the next home that our family moves to we would like him to purchase it in his name so that it will become his new primary residence and the plan is to do a Revised BRRRR method (or RBRRRR :) ) Buy, Rehab, Relocate, Refinance and Repeat. Our thought is to use a hard money lender to purchase it so that we can go in stronger as a cash buyer and hopefully get a reduced purchase price instead of going in using traditional financing through banks. After rehabbing and relocating my husband would refinance as his primary residence; the plan would be to live here for about one year. This is our plan because we want to put less than 20% down and the area we are planning to move to long term is an area we are not as familiar with so purchasing this home first would allow us an opportunity to learn exactly where want to live in the area since the next home we purchase will not be a temporary living situation but it would become our family home where we live for years to come. After doing this RBRRRR, the next home we purchase would be in my name and it would become my new primary residence. The goal with the home I purchase in my name would be to have a house with a house hacking opportunity. Similar to before we would use a hard money lender to buy it, do rehab work, refinance it with the bank and rent out a portion of it.

My questions regarding the plan are do we need to consider any restrictions/possible issues when refinancing and having a new primary home? I have heard that the new primary residence has to be of greater value than the original primary residence and you have to have rented out the original primary residence for two years, which we will not meet this timeframe for his home so any workaround/clarification to this would help. Is there anything else that should be considered? I would love general feedback on this plan in case anyone else has done something similar or can offer suggestions to improve it. We live in Metro-Atlanta and we are looking to purchase in an area north of Atlanta. Thanks in advance for all the insight BP community.