Multi family unit with fha

[Ryan Smith]

I’m looking to house hack by buying a multi family unit, but have a few concerns. I have a 2 yr old and wife. What if I buy and end up not being comfortable with the area  as I work nights so they are home alone. Can I move back out? Or are you stuck there for at least one year?

[Jeff Copeland]

You have to occupy within 60 days of purchase, and you have to intend to live in it for at least one year. You will sign an affidavit attesting to this, so failure to do so could be considered mortgage fraud.

If you have a valid reason for needing to move (unexpected job transfer, death in the family, etc), it's generally assumed moving would be allowed without repercussions. 

"We decided we didn't like the neighborhood" is a very gray area - If you had some kind of incident (a break-in, or riot, for example), it would probably add more credence to your defense. But you'd probably still want some kind of paper trail documenting the issues and communicating your concerns and reasons for moving to your lender (or, the opposite approach would be to not tell them a thing and hope you don't get caught - which I'm certainly not advocating).

Ultimately, they need to believe and verify that moving early wasn't your intent all along, just to try and circumvent the FHA requirements (which would essentially be defrauding the government and using up a finite resource intended to promote home ownership in the US); Giving you an FHA loan could ultimately mean that some other family was unable to get one.