Nice and Easy Start - Condo in Maryland

[Felipe A.]

Hi all:

The good news - my wife and I are expecting our first next month. Her mother has very generously offered to come and help us out with the baby for 1-2 years. Unfortunately, we only have a basement for her. Fortunately, we live in a great neighborhood and attached to our neighborhood are some (mostly) 2-2 condos in very good shape (ranging 200-220k) that we've been eyeing. My wife and I started thinking long term and thought it would be good to have her mom stay in this condo while we pay for the PITI (we look at it this way rather than paying a daycare/nanny which could be in the $1500-2000 range per month for a few years - yes, they are that expensive). Her mother has generously offered to put down 11-12% and we would probably put in an additional 8-10% (totally manageable for us). Down the road when her mom decides to move back home, we would rent the property out (it would be slightly cash flow positive but these condos rent very easily). We would be just shy of the 1% rule, but comfortable enough with it. We would be doing this for convenience moreso than our principal investment vehicle.

My questions:

- For our principal residence, I am the sole name on the mortgage.  Can my wife apply for the mortgage on this property as if it's HER principal residence?

- For this kind of investment, what would be the best way to pull out equity within 1-3 years?

- Am I missing anything?  I know this is not the typical great deal that folks here are looking at but I just want to make sure I am not missing anything.

Thanks in advance.