List investment property as primary residence?

[Alex Hunt]

Hi BP community - I'm just starting my journey in real estate and seeking to buy my first property in California's Central Valley, namely Merced. I work in San Francisco and live on the peninsula where real estate valuations are astronomically high, hence my interest in looking elsewhere. Merced is about a two hour drive from my home. I plan to buy and hold and rent the property. My uncle is a loan manager and has offered to do the transaction for me without some of the associated costs. He says I can list it as my primary residence for one year and I can claim I work remotely (which I often do) to avoid higher rates/down payment associated with purchasing a property as an investment property, not to mention the tax benefits. Do folks in the BP community have any advice about this? Is this off-the-books kind of move common practice? I'm worried about the consequences of listing a rental property as my primary residence and wonder if I'm getting bad advice from my uncle. Thanks in advance, Alex

[Calvin Kwan]

My loan offer was telling me to do the same, but you're taking a pretty big chance.  It's mortgage fraud and a federal offense.  What would happen if you had a bad tenant that reported you?  Your loan can get pulled or even worse.

I opted not to do it since I can pay the 25% and .25 points more for an investment loan.  At least I don't always have to worry.