Understanding Conventional Financing & how to get it

[Deak Smith]

Alright, I’ll just throw it out there and hopefully not feel too dumb when the answers start rolling in. I hear a lot about the 10 conventional loan limit. I have 4 single family houses and 2 loans (2 houses/loan). I’m nearing completion of a 5th house & I am wanting to find my best financing option for this property. Some background….When I started & was trying to find financing for the first property, no one would give me, what I think of as, conventional financing. I was constantly referred to the “business loan department”. I recently verified for sure one of my existing loans is considered a business loan. Maybe I am incorrect when I think of conventional financing as a typical owner occupied loan. So my question is, what exactly is this conventional financing I keep hearing everyone refer to & how is everyone getting conventional financing for investment properties? I get the feeling I need to misrepresent my intentions when I discuss a potential loan with a mortgage officer.

As an aside, this last unit is in a college town. Although not part of the original plan, my daughter has moved into it (@ a discount but not free). I toss out this information just in case it leads to a different set of options.

Look forward to hearing what I am missing.

[Gavin Davie]

I think the term just means a regular mortgage - there are basically 2 types of mortgages - conventional and commercial. You can have up to 10 conventional as an individual, and as many commercial as you can get approved for. Conventional are usually much lower APR and a good way to start out (but you need commercial if you want your LLC to own the property/etc.) - if you go through big banks you get the people we are not used to dealing w/ investors and may refer you to the wrong places - good options for conventional for investment properties are Finance of America, and if you want to go commercial - Lima One. I've used both and zero issues.