How do I get a 2nd house to house hack given my situation?

[Mike Schorah]

I own my own home. I’d like to buy a second property to live in and rent out my current property.

I have a $50k HELOC on my primary residence taken out in January. I haven't spent any of the $50k HELOC. Is there a way to avoid the fee to close the HELOC early?

I heard that I'd need to refinance my FHA into a conventional before I could take out a FHA on the second property. Could I just use a DSCR loan to house hack? In other words, could I get a DSCR loan with 3.5% down and an interest rate similar to FHA?

Also is it ok that I have 3 one month gaps in my work history in the past 3 years? I’ve been in the same industry for the past 8 years. My credit score is 715.

[Paul Defngin]

Quote from @Mike Schorah:

I own my own home. I’d like to buy a second property to live in and rent out my current property.

I have a $50k HELOC on my primary residence taken out in January. I haven't spent any of the $50k HELOC. Is there a way to avoid the fee to close the HELOC early?

I heard that I'd need to refinance my FHA into a conventional before I could take out a FHA on the second property. Could I just use a DSCR loan to house hack? In other words, could I get a DSCR loan with 3.5% down and an interest rate similar to FHA?

Also is it ok that I have 3 one month gaps in my work history in the past 3 years? I’ve been in the same industry for the past 8 years. My credit score is 715.

If you have been in your current house for at least a year and you want to vacate and convert it to a rental and go buy another property then there is no reason that you have to refinance. You could buy the next house using conventional financing and put down 5%, in most cases. If you qualify to carry both house payments, great, but if you don't, then you'll need to have a lease and tenant to occupy the vacating house in order to use for offsetting that house payment only, including the HELOC payment which you can use to buy the next house.

Hope that helps. Good luck.