[endisneigh]

Most of this is false:

1. With a lease and/or two years of prior landlord experience you can use rental income both for existing and projected for new property.

2. For multi unit, if you’re owner occupied you qualify for FHA and therefore can put down as little as 3%

3. You only have to stay in your home for 6 months for refinance and 1 year for initial purchase. The guidelines are loose, and can relocate earlier depending.

That being said, it doesn’t really make sense since most properties in high cost of living areas don’t cash flow well to begin with.

[adwi]

Having purchased a multifamily recently I can confirm all of these are true.

I bought during the plummeting urban Covid rents. When looking for my mortgage a few banks told me their underwriters were temporarily directed to ignore all building income toward qualification.

I worked with a good mortgage broker and he had the option of 20+ banks that were happy to write a conventional loan using a ratio of the building’s income counting toward my qualification. I believe it was 80%.

Re: cash flow, I live in half the building, at current rents the two tenants pay 84% of the mortgage tax and insurance. The tax write offs more than make up for the rest.