I won't qualify without a primary mortgage or paying rent?

[Heather Burnell]

I am new to investing and have a question regarding qualifying for loans. I bought two single-family houses last year and have another house as my primary residence which I bought 4 years ago. All are being financed. 

I am hoping to buy more properties this year. I work away for half of the year and then travel as much as I can the other half. I want to sell my primary residence because I am hardly ever there and want to use the money from that sale to buy more rentals. 

I was just informed that if I don’t have a primary residence rent or house payment for the past 12 months, there are additional underwriting guidelines to comply with. These are recent changes that took effect on most loans a couple months ago and all will be effected by March 1st. Essentially the change states that if I cannot prove I have a rent or house payment, I cannot use the rental income from the subject property (the new purchase) to help me qualify for another loan.

Can anyone out there shed some light on this for me?