Good news for house hackers!

[Matthew Roder]

Hey BP! Great news on the horizon for house hackers. There are typically two widely available options for someone looking to buy a 2-4 unit property, live in one unit, rent out the others, and put less than 20% down. FHA is the first option, with the second option being a Home Possible loan. Both have their pros and cons and depending on the situation, one may be a better fit than the other. One of the big drawbacks of the home possible option is that the borrower is not allowed to own any other property (other than a few limited circumstances.) Therefore limiting the use of the product. Beginning on October 29, 2018, Freddie Mac is removing this restriction from their guidelines. So now, you can qualify for a home possible loan while still owning other investment properties, with no restrictions. This also opens the door for subsequent use of the program, which cannot be done with FHA (as you can only have one FHA loan at a time.) Buy a 4-unit with a Home Possible loan, live in 1 of the units for a year, move out and repeat. This could create a great opportunity for someone looking to build a portfolio of multi-unit properties very quickly.