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Updated over 3 years ago on . Most recent reply

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Tony Alvine
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Can you "house hack" a condo?

Tony Alvine
Posted

As I understand it, house hacking would traditionally mean living in one unit of a multi unit property for at least a year and that would allow you to rent out the remaining units and then the unit you would live in after you complete your year. This would get you better mortgage rates with potentially less money down. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I'm wondering if I can do the same thing with a 2/3 bedroom condo. Living in one bedroom for a year and renting the other rooms out to tenants and then renting out all three the following year. I'm not sure if that's allowed or if lenders would say no to that. To be clear, I'm not interested in what they "like", only what wouldn't constitute mortgage fraud and I wouldn't give any info to them that I don't have to.

The second part of that is, could I have the home be my "residence", for mortgage purposes, if I didn't physically live in it most of the time? Sounds stupid, I know. I wouldn't rent that room out to anyone for the first year, I would have the bills in my name and pay them, and I may stay there every now and then (I'd have a bed and some clothes there). Would it be any different than if I really did move in and then spent my days traveling? Only reason I ask is that it would be much more inconvenient for me to be there all the time as opposed to where I am now (where I live for a cash month to month, no bills in my name). And before someone asks why I would want to stay where I am and pay rent instead of move in there and live for free or cheaper... it would add 1.5 hours each way to my commute on public transport whereas I currently drive 15 mins with barely any traffic. Losing 60 hours a month isn't worth it.

What would be enough to call the place my "residence" on paper. Unit in my name, bills in my name, and me not claiming another place as my primary residence would be enough right?

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Patricia Steiner
  • Real Estate Broker
  • Hyde Park Tampa, FL
3,857
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2,465
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Patricia Steiner
  • Real Estate Broker
  • Hyde Park Tampa, FL
Replied

There's a lot in your posting but here's the short answer on renting a condo:

Condos are governed by HOAs and the bylaws dictate whether units can be rented and under what conditions. Most require that the property manager/HOA screen and approve the tenant. I seriously doubt that you'll find a Condo community that will permit the activity you're proposing. There's a reason why house hacks are done with "houses."

I'm not going to address the whole lender question because claiming a property as your "residence" for mortgage purposes is fraud. It also impacts the HOA so all that liar, liar pants on fire stuff is just not cool - or legal.  There are enough lending resources (not referencing Hard Money) that you can obtain financing with good terms that you can drop the "I don't care what they like, I won't give them..." bravado.  You're either the real deal or you're not.  

Learn more before you leap into something that will be hard to undo.

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