Occupancy guidelines for landlords In general, you'll need to move into the property within 60 days of closing. In addition, you'll have to live in the property for at least 12 months to qualify as an occupant owner before most lenders. On the contrary, you could get funding as an absentee landlord. For a property to be considered owner-occupied, you, the landlord, must live in the residence for most of the year.
What is most of the year? In general, most of the year can be defined as spending your time primarily on the property and not anywhere else. If you're going on vacation or traveling, that's fine, but if you spend more than 30% of your time somewhere other than the residence you're financing, you might not qualify for a landlord-occupied loan. The SBA 504 loan provides small businesses that will be owner-occupiers with access to the same type of long-term, fixed-rate financing enjoyed by larger companies. Interest rates are equivalent to favorable rates in the bond market.
You qualify for the loan program when you have sufficient liquidity and net worth and plan to occupy more than 51% of the line you are going to buy for SBA 504 loans or 30% for conventional financing.
