Refinancing hard money structure to allow for a FHA loan

[Raymond Wu]

Hello BP community,

I’m a young engineer and just moved to Connecticut for work. Graduated in 2015 and want to begin investing in real estate.

I recently just purchased a multi-family house (4 units) last month using a hard money loan due to some initial mistakes with the financing part of the deal. Now, I'm in the process of refinancing the hard money loan. I plan on purchasing another property later this year using an FHA loan.

Questions:

How should I structure the refinancing of the hard money loan? Which will still allow me to take out an FHA loan to purchase another property this year?

What are some limitations to an FHA loan? Monetary gifts? 4 multi-family units qualified?

Any additional thoughts/suggestions/criticisms are welcome and will be appreciated. 

[Mat O'Grady]

Hello @Raymond Wu, welcome to the site!

I am not a mortgage broker, but I believe as long as you do not have an FHA mortgage already and you plan on living in the house purchased with the FHA loan, you should be able to do it.

One thing that might cause a hiccup is that your income needs to be able to cover the mortgage on your first property and the new mortgage and I believe you need 6 months of reserves to cover the mortgages. I also believe that the income from your investment property does not help until you have two years of doing it, but that may be wrong.

What does everyone else have to add?