First Time House Hacker

[Christina Kable]

Hi all,

I’ve been an avid Bigger Pockets listener and forum lurker for some time now and I think I’m finally ready to take the leap into my first rental property.

We plan to build a home on my in-laws farm shortly - realistic move in date wouldn’t be for atleast 1.5 years as we’re still preparing the lot. In the interim, we are seriously considering selling our current home ASAP and house hacking a multi unit rental where we live in northwestern Maryland (about 45 minutes from Baltimore). One of the units will be our primary residence until the new house is ready.

I’ve started speaking with our realtor and have done my own browsing and it seems like multi unit homes are hard to come by so it will likely be tough to find a good prospect where the numbers make sense, but we’ll be prepared to jump if we find a good fit. 

Couple questions, I spoke with the mortgage broker we’re planning to use for the new construction loan and he seemed pretty unfamiliar with this whole house hacking concept and the ability to put as little as 3.5% down on a house that will be our primary residence for a year. He seemed to think that 10% is the absolute minimum even if we planned to live there. Is this type of loan offered in all states? Does anyone have recommendations for a good mortgage broker in the Maryland area who might be more familiar?

What are everyone's thoughts on the PMI on this type of FHA loan? Do folks typically refinance to get this dropped at some point in time? Are there any situations where PMI is not applied for this type of loan and at what % down payment?

Thanks everyone in advance and looking forward to becoming more engaged in this community!