All Forum Posts by: Tara Ballenger

Looking for contractor recommendation for a basement bathroom remodel in NE Portland. No one is calling me back! 

Hi everyone. Looking for recommendations for a deep shower pan, or a pan with a substantial curb/lip, so that I can hang shower curtain instead of doors. Cost isn't as important as form/function on this one. 32x48. I could possibly swing 30x48, too. Help! :) 

@Kevin Romines I understand the FHA doesn't require rental history to count projected rents, but that doesn't allow you to skirt their 100-mile departing residence rule. It comes down to the question of whether your last departing primary residence - that you still own - can be seen as anything other than a departure residence, even if your try to workaround it by renting another place for a short time. It's still your departing owned/financed primary residence, and they still have a rule against it, even if you rent another place.

At the very least, this would need to manually underwritten, and I doubt they’d sign off on it. It is so clearly an attempt to skirt the spirit of the rule (don’t grt me wrong, the rule is stupid). Have you funded an fha loan with this situation? I could be wrong... @Chris Mason

@Kevin Romines I believe fha actually requires 2 years of rental income to be able to count the income. Conventional requires none - just a lease in place before clear to close. And I’m unsure if that would help me skirt the fha downsizing rule, anyway, because I’d still own a bigger home, whether I made it a rental or not. 

@Chris Mason I agree about FHA, but in my market, fourplexes are easily $700,000. Hard to pony up 20% for that. Conventional isn't often an easy option B to FHA. Portland encourages ADUs, so you can buy conventional SFH and essentially convert to duplex without breaking any mortgage rules or city zoning. But it's not the same as being able to score a fourplex for 3.5% down.

@Anthony Gayden I’d have to sell my house anyway - you can’t keep departing residence as a rental anymore, unless you can carry both mortgages. Can no longer use projected rents of departing residence as income, for fha loans. So I’m not sure where that leaves me. I have another duplex besides my departing residence. 

Thanks @Chris Mason. Very good info. The reason would be financial and I suppose come down to house hacking. Best and most honest answer I could come up with is that downsizing into a unit of a fourplex would allow me reduce my housing costs, thus allowing me to work less as I begin my family. It’s disappointing that that isn’t seen as a legitimate reason. I’d never dream of committing mortgage fraud, and reducing housing costs seems like as good a reason as any to downsize. 

Have any of you come across FHA's supposed rule that you can't buy a 2-4 unit property if the unit you plan to owner occupy is significantly smaller than the residence you currently own or are moving from? What are the exact metrics they are using to determine denial based on this?

@Jeff Stephens would you say that that investors could still use wholesaling strategies (letters and driving for dollars), to find off-market deals, even if they are using conventional financing? Certainly less enticing to sellers, I assume. @Caleb Webster did you ever move forward with an offer? 

@Zach Davis and @Mathew Wray thanks so much for the insights! I am looking to convert a split level to a duplex - so it would be like a 3/2 and a 2/1. Separate yards and driveways but shared walls. I really like the Glendoveer area, and further out areas like Argay, and there are tons of lovely split levels in those ‘hoods. Do all families want detached SFRs? Is there a strong market for 2 br units outside of the trendier hoods? So many questions. :) 

I live in Gresham currently, and will be converting my primary sfh detached to a rental soon. But for the split level conversion, I need to do it in pdx city limits, bc it's more ADU friendly.