Second home amount need to put down?

[sj08054]

It was 20% down for me last year as a investment property through a local mortgage company. They immediately sold it to Ditech.

[keraT]

I am going to add to this to ask,, what is the best way to get 2nd mortgage? If I am looking to buy another house with in few miles of my current house..... is it better to


1) can I get 2nd house mortgage if its close in distance?
2) Is it better to take home equity on the 1st house & pay cash for 2nd house
3) Can I rent out my current house which is in primary residential mortgage & buy another house as primary house?

[Bungalove]

Originally Posted by keraT

I am going to add to this to ask,, what is the best way to get 2nd mortgage? If I am looking to buy another house with in few miles of my current house..... is it better to


1) can I get 2nd house mortgage if its close in distance?
2) Is it better to take home equity on the 1st house & pay cash for 2nd house
3) Can I rent out my current house which is in primary residential mortgage & buy another house as primary house?

What is your intent in buying the second house close to your present one? That could be the defining factor. #1 & 2 depend on your lending institution. If you do #3 the lender will want to have a certain number of months of rental income for the house if you want to include it as part of your income stream. I did it once with a home I lived in: rented that one and bought another as a primary residence. Fortunately I had awesome tenants who eventually bought the first house.

Personally I wouldn't do #2, but that's just me. Do you own your current house outright? That would make a huge difference in obtaining a home equity loan.

As far as #1, I just got qualified by the local credit union for a mortgage for a second home. The understanding is that when I buy one (which would be my new primary home), I would be either selling or renting out my current home. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find one I like as much as my current home that is in my price range (they'll increase the loan amount somewhat, due to my FICO score and extremely low debt to income ratio, but I don't want to go above a certain amount).

Have you talked to a mortgage broker yet? I'd start there - a good mortgage broker is worth his/her weight in gold. My former broker could qualify me over the phone after we did 5 home purchases and sales.