Housing Hacking with Second Home Mortgages

[Peter W.]

My wife and I are considering getting a home closer to her family to stay in for extended periods and holidays. The current option that we are looking at is buy, live in 1-2 months of the year, convert to MTR or STR for the other months (especially since we are flexible on our end). The first question is, can I use a second home mortgage (10% down and lower interest rate) for this. Some quick googling suggests the answer is yes provided I don't rent it out more than 180 days for the first year, do I understand correctly?

The other question I have is if anyone has tried this on repeat, like with standard house hacking (live in for a year and repeat). That is, buy one home in city X (where I don't live), live in it a couple of months let it be an STR the rest of the time and then the next year (or in two years) repeat again in the same city.