Will the rent from the other unit help me qualify?
Yes. If you live in one unit of a two-to-four unit home, the lender can count most of the rent from the other units as income. The FHA handbook and Fannie Mae's guide for conventional loans both use 75 percent.
WHAT MOST PEOPLE ARE NEVER TOLD
What you can afford depends on the home. A home that brings in rent raises the income a lender counts, so the answer changes with every house with an ADU, duplex, triplex or fourplex you look at.
On both loans the counted rent is added to your income. The full payment still counts as debt, and the rent cannot be subtracted from it. The quarter left out is the rulebook's allowance for vacancy and upkeep. Nobody collects it.
On a Fannie Mae loan the rent counts once you can show a housing payment of your own today. With less than a year of landlord experience, it counts up to the payment.
If a unit is leased, the lender starts from the lease, and the appraiser's market rent has to support it. If a unit is empty, the appraiser's estimate is the number.
GOOD TO KNOW
Ask the seller for the leases and get a rent estimate before you offer. The lender counts the rent an appraiser backs up, which is not always the rent in the listing. The appraisal is ordered once you are under contract.
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
- 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 B3-6-02, Debt-to-Income Ratios (04/02/2025)
- HUD Handbook 4000.1 (FHA), revised 8/12/2026: rental income from the home you live in, printed pages 240 to 241; the vacancy and upkeep allowance, printed page 171
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.