renting out my primary residence

[Walker Seid]

I just bought a house in April in Texas that I planned on living in for 2+years. I might have to move to Idaho because of some family medical issues. Can I rent my current house or and buy another house in Idaho to live in or do I need to sell in order to avoid committing fraud? I want to stay on the right side of the law. Thanks

[Jon Holdman]

Why do you think there would be fraud? The only situation where this is truly a problem is if your loan requires you to live there for a specific period of time. That's usually associated with first time home buyers programs or programs that help you with money for the purchase. Otherwise, if your intent was to stay there and you got an OO loan, but now circumstances dictate you move, you aren't going to have a problem. Tell us more about your loan.

When you try to buy another house, though, you will probably have to qualify for the new loan without any consideration of the rental income.  If you have at least two years landlord experience (typically viewed as rental income on two tax returns), you can include rental income.  If not, you typically cannot.  So that may be a factor in buying another house.