FHA Loan - How likely is it that they check your residence?

[Jake Wakefield]

To qualify for an FHA loan, you need to live in the property for 1 year.

While I intend to live in my new property for 1 year, I will also spend a considerable amount of time at my brother's house and my mother's house. I will probably have my "own" room at both of these houses.

Is this okay for the FHA loan if I don't spend every night in the new property? How often do they check to see if you are around and what kinds of checks do they do to see if the property is your "primary residence"? Do they knock on your door?

Thanks for any help or information on this topic. I just don't want to accidentally break the rules of the FHA loan that I want to take out.

[Grant Berthold]

You would be fine renting out the other two rooms. It would be the same as if you bought a home and 2 of your friends became your roommates and they paid you rent. However, I believe you would need to include the income from the 2 other renters as income on your taxes (I would check with a cpa on that to be sure though).

Along with that, if you are planning on buying a single family home, I would use a conventional 5% down loan instead of an FHA loan. The Mortgage Insurance will be lower, and you won't have to pay what's called the "Up Front Mortgage Insurance Premium" which I believe is 1.75% of the loan amount.

If you are planning on buying more properties in the future, you could use an FHA mortgage to buy a multifamily property (up to a 4-plex) and still only put 3.5% down. You can only have one FHA loan open at a time, so if you think you'll buy more properties, I'd "save" your FHA loan and buy this single family with a conventional loan.