Investing with fha loans and a cosigner

[Andrew M.]

I'm looking at investment property which I intend to hold for cashflow while owner occupying (I'd get a 5 bed, live in one and rent out the other 4). In this market I can actually still cashflow and even hit a 7 or 8 % cap while living in one room if I find the right deals.

I have a healthy cash position and feel like I'm ready to make this move into my first property but I am having financing issues. I have minimal provable job experience because I'm young and have been living out of the country for the last year. My dad however will cosign for me on this property which means I am pre qualified for essentially any property in the market I'm looking at.

The catch comes in the fact that my dad is cosigning but will not be living in the property. My bank (PNC) has told me that the only kind of loan that will accomodate this is an FHA loan. The other problem comes from the fact that most of the properties in this market need some work which makes it dificult for them to pass FHA inspections. Because of this issue I'm also having a hard time finding agents that are willing to work with me because there's this big risk of investing a lot of time and then having deals fall through.

Some questions:

1) Does anyone know of other bank loan types (I'm also pursuing private money but it's difficult without having a track record) that could possible accomodate my cosigner situation.

2) Does anyone have stories of either success or failure of buying houses with FHA loans that needed moderate rehab work, and trying to work with the seller to get repairs done before closing?

Note: I'm not advertising for a loan or looking for one in any way. I already have a bank I'm working with and a preapproval. I'm only looking to obtain information about the loans themselves.

[Dev Horn]

I'm trying to imagine the chaos of living in a 5 BDRM house with FOUR RENTERS sharing 1 kitchen, the living areas, and 2 or 3 bathrooms. Sounds kind of like a frat house. I hope you're not making too many assumptions of how great that might be. This sounds like one of those scenarios that only works if all the stars align perfectly.

Why don't you just rent an apartment and use your available cash/credit to buy, rehab, rent and sell affordable single-family homes of the 3/2/2 variety?

To me, the loan is secondary to the strategy, and I'd really think hard about that strategy - just to preserve your sanity.

Wish you the BEST!