My buyer wants a fourplex. What do I check before we write?
Four things, and you can check each one before you write. Your buyer needs a unit to move into, a legal unit count that matches the listing, rent the lender can document, and a loan the rent supports. Check the property before the price.
WHAT MOST PEOPLE ARE NEVER TOLD
On a fourplex, FHA looks at the rent as well as the buyer. Whatever the buyer earns, the payment has to fit inside three quarters, at most, of the appraiser's rent for all four units, the buyer's own included.
A fourplex can be your buyer's home on an FHA or Fannie Mae loan. Run these four checks before you write.
- Move-in. One unit empty at closing, or a tenancy that ends in time. Fannie Mae and FHA expect the buyer to move in within 60 days.
- Legal units. Match the listing to the county record and the zoning. A unit added without zoning approval may not count. Fannie Mae's guide requires the property to be a legal use of the land.
- Rent on paper. Get the signed leases now. For an empty unit the lender goes by the appraiser's estimate, whatever the listing says.
- Loan type. The rent test is FHA's, on three and four units. Fannie Mae adds the counted rent to the buyer's income. Its system asks for more cash after closing: six months of payments in reserve, against three for FHA.
GOOD TO KNOW
Ask the lender to run FHA's rent test on a cautious rent first, because the appraiser sets the figure it uses after your buyer is under contract. If that figure comes in low, the usual choices are a lower price, more money down, or a different loan.
Yours is a little different. They all are.
Tell us what you are looking at and what you are trying to do. We answer with the numbers on your situation.
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WHERE THIS COMES FROM
- HUD Handbook 4000.1, FHA Single Family Housing Policy Handbook (last revised 8/12/2026): II.A.1.b.iii occupancy; II.A.1.b.iv(B)(3)(c) rent test; II.A.4.c.xii(I) rental income; II.A.4.d.i(C) reserves
- Fannie Mae Selling Guide B2-1.1-01, Occupancy Types (11/04/2026)
- Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-1.3-04, Site Section of the Appraisal Report (06/04/2025)
- Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-3.8-02, Rental Income from the Subject Property (09/02/2026)
- Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-3.8-01, General Rental Income Information (09/02/2026)
- Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-4.1-01, Minimum Reserve Requirements (08/07/2024)
- Series Homes analysis of 2025 HMDA data: denials as a share of applications lenders decided (FFIEC HMDA Data Browser)
Researched and written by Series Homes. Checked against its sources on . Lending rules change. This page is general information, not a loan offer or legal or tax advice.