You Don't Know What You Don't Know

[Karen Bickford]

Hello BP Nation!

Had a very bad/good wake up call today and wanted to share.  

I have a condo in Florida in a tourist town.  It is a very nice condo and I earn very nice returns as I paid for it out right.  

The dilemma started today when I thought I would leverage it to buy another property in Mexico.  (You have to bring your own money to the table there, unless you want to pay usurious rates for money).  Perfect I have plenty of equity in Florida I will use that.

Fast forward.. It is a 55 unit property and most of the condos rent weekly.  The loan officer asked me about he "owner occupancy rate" There are 55 condos and 54 rent weekly.  The "owner occupancy rate is 15%"

There are no Fannie Mae refinance  or loans that will fund a condo with less than 50% owner occupancy.  Basically I have half a million dollars that I can't do anything with and if I sell it, it would have to be a cash buyer or I would have to owner finance.

So moral of the story is know the rules with condo financing especially if they are not owner occupied.

Very long day and very hard lesson :(