Using Future Rent as Income; First Time Home Buyer Multi-Unit

[Elexa Marsh]

Hello all, 

I am a first time homebuyer looking to take advantage of an FHA loan for a multi-unit property. I recently heard about people using an FHA loan to buy a multi unit property and using future rent as income, and I want to do the same to start building my portfolio.

I currently have a salaried job and reside in CA. I'm not sure if with my current salary and the future rental income combined I would even qualify for anything in this state, so I would like suggestions on other states to do this in.

Any information on this process would be helpful and suggestions on good rental markets to do this in are appreciated! If you have done this yourself, your personal input is also greatly appreciated!

P.S. please feel free to re-classify my post if I am in the wrong section.

[Josh Young]

@Elexa Marsh you need to talk to a lender, they will be able to help you create a plan. You should be able to use the appraisal projected rent (on the units that you will be renting out) as income to help your DTI, but they might only use 75% of this projected rental income, they have guidelines from Fannie and Freddie that they have to follow and some lenders have additional guidelines that are even more strict. Learning the underwriting guidelines is the first step to learning how to qualify and then you can create a budget and a plan, after that you can start looking at what market to invest in, although I will say Arizona is pretty attractive, we have super low property taxes, landlord friendly laws, relatively affordable prices, as well as steady population and job growth.