Hello, my friends. And welcome to another episode of Ask Marco where we're going to cover some Rapid Fire Listener Questions. So I picked about four questions for today, and I wanted to mix them up a little bit. So these are going to be hopefully a little different than some of the past episodes.

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And let's start with a question from Megan and she writes in and says, hi Marco, I am a new listener and I love your podcast. Well, thank you. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise. I have a question about how to change an owner-occupied property into an investment property. I bought a duplex this year with one side, rented out and with the other side owner-occupied, I was single at the time since then I got married. Congratulations, Megan!

My now husband and I considered selling his place and living in the duplex together. But now we are wondering if it makes more sense to keep both properties. However, as I understand it, I am obligated to reside in the duplex for at least one year, as I bought the home with the intention to owner occupy and was able to pay a lower down payment as a result. Do you have experience with this? I am legally bound to reside in one side of the duplex for the next year, or is there a way to change this property into an investment and rent out both units? Very interesting question, Megan and a good one, by the way. I haven't seen this come up for a long time and I just want to say congratulations on getting married and everything you're doing. I think it's fantastic. And the fact that you're thinking about keeping both properties instead of either, or is very positive because it's always better to have a larger portfolio and create wealth through the growth and equity of more than one property than just one property.

So this is why having a larger portfolio and mark multiple properties is such a powerful thing. So you're thinking about this the right way. And so I'm happy to see that. Now this is an interesting question. So I'm not an attorney. I'm not giving you legal advice or financial advice or anything like that. But I have seen this come up a lot in years past where people would purchase a property. And this was especially true before, you know, the housing crash of 2006, 07'. And you know, the great recession that followed that in 2008, there were a lot of people who would purchase properties, you know, with a owner-occupied home loan to get the lower interest rates. And their intention really was not to live in the property. They were just trying to get a better loan and then rent the property thereafter. This still goes on.

The reality is, is that the lenders typically don't check. And if they do, it's usually shortly thereafter, often within the first two or three months, they just verify that you're still in the residence, how they do that. I'm not sure they probably send letters to the residents. They may check whatever they can in public records. And that could be utilities. The thing is, is when you sign mortgage loan documents, you don't want to lie. You don't want to be fraudulent, but the key word in all of this is intention. When you sign the loan documents, you are saying that I intend, or I am getting this loan with the intention of living in the property as my residence or my principle residence. And that may be very much true at the time that you purchase the property and sign the loan documents. However, I know things happen in life.

People get job transfers or there may be a death in the family or health issues or whatever the case may be. And people have to, you know, move or downsize or whatever the case is. So at that point,