Question: Requirement for primary residence FHA Loan

[Nathan Fernandez]

Hello BiggerPockets Forums!

I currently live in the suburbs of Chicago, and have a mortgage on my house. I am looking into ways to purchase real estate with little money down.

I work downtown, and it is a 1.5 hour commute into the city. I would love to use an FHA loan to purchase a 4-flat that I can live in during part of the week and then commute home on the weekend to be with my wife. (My wife refuses to go back to apartment living and we are expecting so it is out of the question to move to the city permanently)

I am concerned that this will not qualify as a primary residence since I won't be spending more than 50% of my time in that residence. I do not want to do anything that can get me in trouble for mortgage fraud. I think it's a long shot, but was wondering if there was a way that I could use an FHA loan for a downtown 4-flat. Appreciate any guidance!

Thanks,

Nate

[Chris Mason]

Originally posted by @Account Closed:

Originally posted by @Chris Mason:

Originally posted by @Nathan Fernandez:

Hello BiggerPockets Forums!

I currently live in the suburbs of Chicago, and have a mortgage on my house. I am looking into ways to purchase real estate with little money down.

I work downtown, and it is a 1.5 hour commute into the city. I would love to use an FHA loan to purchase a 4-flat that I can live in during part of the week and then commute home on the weekend to be with my wife. (My wife refuses to go back to apartment living and we are expecting so it is out of the question to move to the city permanently)

I am concerned that this will not qualify as a primary residence since I won't be spending more than 50% of my time in that residence. I do not want to do anything that can get me in trouble for mortgage fraud. I think it's a long shot, but was wondering if there was a way that I could use an FHA loan for a downtown 4-flat. Appreciate any guidance!

Thanks,

Nate

 I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, but there's a broad consensus that they aren't counting the number of total awake hours in the home, they are counting the number of nights your head is asleep on a pillow in that home, and >50% makes it a primary residence. 4 out of 7 nights a week would seem to tick that box. Monday night, Tues, Wed, Thu nights (that's 4), and Friday you drive back home.

For professions like long haul truck drivers, the general understanding is that nights spent with the head on a pillow at "work" (ie, in the truck, in a motel) do not count towards the >50% test. So if a truck driver is off the road and not at a distant motel 5 nights a month, the expectation would be that for at least 3 of those nights, his head falls asleep on a pillow in the house with a primary residence mortgage.

@Chris - Totally unrelated (sorry about that) but is FHA still doing additional VOE day before funding?

Within 10 days, and yes.