House Hacking w/Multiple Primary Residences

[Ian Campbell]

Hello from suburban Philly! I'm wondering if any existing homeowners have tried to purchase a multi-family investment property to live in/house hack, and in doing so are able to classify the purchased multi-family as the new primary residence in order to achieve a lower down payment and/or interest rate despite still owning their original house/primary residence? 

I work as a PM/civil engineer for a large CRE firm and have a construction jobsite about 2 hours west of my current primary residence (the project's duration is over 12 months), and am considering moving/living in 1 of the units during the week to cut down on my commute time, but don't want to sell my existing primary residence and thought this might be an advantageous way to capitalize on the situation. However, I'm unaware of any tax and/or legal implications to this plan, or if any lenders will allow this if I just purchased my primary residence a short while ago (September 2021). Perhaps my new job/work location would allow me to classify a multi-family property closer to my new long-term jobsite as my new primary residence, or is this a recipe for large tax filing/legal implications?

Thank you,

Ian Campbell