Lending options to buy a second home

[Jennifer Bailey]

Hi All,

My husband and I bought a home in Surfside, Texas last year which is a popular tourist town and Air B&B hot spot.

We purchased the home using an owner occupancy loan and are currently living here. Our plan is to start renting it once we hit our 1 year commitment in a few months.

My question is.. What is the best route to go about buying a second home to do the same thing and how to offset our mortgage towards our DTI? Basically, purchase a new home then STR this one, rinse and repeat.

The one lender I spoke to said we need a 1 year lease signed to off-set the DTI. This will not work as we plan to do STR.

I've read that some lenders will allow you to go off a percentage of the appraisal amount with out having a signed lease. I understand the risk, however homes in this area earn $30-$50k a year just on Air B&B income and we do have good amount of savings to show.

After the DTI issue comes the down payment:

We are trying to avoid a huge down payment so if we could do another owner-occupancy loan for 1 year that would be ideal. Can we do another owner occupancy loan in the same area?

Other option would be to buy a second home with 10% down. Then we would basically STR our current home, find an apartment back in the city, and STR here and there, considering we woulnd't need to wait 1 year. And yes, I know we still need to occupy it for a portion of the year.

Any suggestions would be helpful!