Dear Claire – Can I Rent My House if I Originally Bought it to Live In?
Exploring the Possibility of Renting Out Your Home: What You Need to Know
Today on Dear Claire, we talk about renting out your house
One of the questions I had recently was, can I rent my home if I bought it as a principal residence? When you’re signing all paperwork for your loan, it specifically asks if you plan to live in this house. Because you answered “yes”, you get a really great break on your interest rate, and a loan that you couldn’t otherwise if you were buying an investment property.
So does that mean that you can’t ever rent out your house? What the lenders paperwork actually asks is just that you intend to live there. If something big happens in your life that was unexpected, like fall madly in love and move to Italy, or you lose your job and you have to move somewhere else, etc. All of those are reasons for you to be able to sell or rent the property because it was unexpected.
Additionally, if it’s something you were planning for at the time of signing, for example you were planning on moving in with someone, then you only have to live there for one year, and then you can rent it.
Taking the above scenarios into account, if/when the property does become a rental you do not have to notify your mortgage broker and you don’t have to notify your lender. You can just rent it and have that great interest rate and have a rental income.
Feel free to reach out with any other great questions. I look forward to talking to you then.
Thanks!
