House Hacking isn’t Working??!

[James Baker]

I live in a Triplex that I own on a portfolio loan that I put 20% down on.

My mortgage is $800 a month.

My insurance is $1200 a year.

I owe $95k on the property and it is worth $150,000.

Unit 1 rents for -$550

Unit 2 rents for -$650

Unit 3 (my unit will rent for -$700-$800)

My plan was to move out of this house into a Fourplex, then rent out my current unit- resulting in $800 plus cash flow out of the Triplex.

The sales price on the fourplex would be $220,000.

The fourplex is worth around $280,000. (It’s a failed short sale)

Each unit can rent anywhere from $800-$1100 a piece. That’s around $700-$1000 of cash flow a month WHILE living there.

So back to my plan.

The plan was to move out of my current triplex, rent out my unit, then get into the fourplex for a low down payment. Somewhere under 5%.

I thought I could do that since it was an owner occupied loan.

Unfortunately, I’ve called 4 residential lenders, who have all said it doesn’t matter about the equity or rental income, it only matters what my w2 income is.

I only make $70,000 a year on my w2, which is obviously not enough to finance two mortgages.

So I can’t even get pre qualified.

Then, I called 5 commercial lenders, and they all said I HAD to put 20% down or they won’t even talk to me.

I even tried to do a blanket loan.

Am I doing something wrong? Is there no way to get a low down payment while living in the fourplex?

It thought that was the whole point of house hacking?

Someone please help!

[Jaysen Medhurst]

Ring-a-ding-ding, @James Baker. It only takes one.