Buying Another Primary Residence After 6 months

[Kiah McBride]

Hi All,

I'm a newbie investor and thus, I'm still learning and wrapping my head around how mortgages and various financing options work. 

I apologize in advance for this post being long, but I want to be thorough so that I can get the best advice for my situation. 

I purchased a primary residence in an up-and-coming area 6 months ago, with the intention of staying in it for at least a year. I initially wanted a townhome or condo because I'm a single woman and for safety reasons, I felt more comfortable with that type of home. However, given my investment goals and realizing it would be hard to rent out a townhome or condo with HOA restrictions in the time frame that I desired, I shifted my focus to looking for a SFH where I would essentially have the freedom to rent the home as I pleased (I was hoping to find a duplex to house hack, however, those are few and far in between in my area and were at a higher price point than I could afford at the time. I also wasn't comfortable house hacking a room in my home while I'm living in it).

That being said, I found a detached SFH that I liked, primarily because it had an unfinished detached garage that's about 590 sq ft. that I knew I could convert into a 1 bedroom STR. I estimated that the income from that back unit alone would cover my mortgage, and thus I was okay with moving forward with the purchase.

However, I'm finding that I'm just not super comfortable living in the SFH, and that I'd still prefer that my primary residence be a townhome or condo. I spoke with a couple of lenders, and one said while normally they don't encourage getting a new primary residence in such a short time frame, that they could justify my purchase with the fact that I'm not comfortable for safety reasons. But of course, part of that requirement is that I'd have to put a long-term renter into my home. I personally don't want to do that, as I feel like I could make more money doing a STR on both my main home and ADU. I'm also not in the financial position to do an investment property that would require a 20% down payment, as all of my liquid funds went into the purchase of my first home, and I haven't had a chance to build up my savings towards a new purchase.

An added note: My ADU conversion is almost done, and once it's finished I want to get it re-appraised and do either a HELOC or cash-out refi to hopefully pull back out the money that I put into it (I didn't know about the BRRRR method prior to starting this project so I know I did it a little backward). I cannot guarantee it would be enough cash to cover a 20% down payment though. 

So my questions are:

1. Besides doing a conventional loan for another primary residence where I'd have to secure a long-term renter, what other loan options are available for me?

2. I recently got my LLC for a real estate company, would refinancing the home and putting it into the LLC open up my loan options? If so, how would that work? I did confirm with my mortgage lender that I only had a 6 month seasoning period for refinancing the home.

3. Are there any other creative options that I can consider?

Thank you for your time and feedback!