Can own a second home in the same county/state and not do an investor loan?

A friend of mine who is a lender has told me that you cannot buy another house in the same state and go 2nd home on it, it would have to be investor, that the definition of 'second home' would apply to a home in another state.
I already own my home, primary residence, here in Las Vegas. I am thinking about buying a small country club condo as invenstment and renting it out. Would I have to go investor on my loan, or could I do second home?

Your friend, while probably well-intentioned, is misinformed. Lenders all have different criteria when it comes to defining a second home. However, most will agree that as long as the second home is at least a certain distance (say 50 miles) from the primary residence, it will qualify as a second home. So, check with a reliable mortgage broker who can access a variety of programs and terms to get the loan you want.

I suppose the best answer would be the one that you wanted to hear, but it would be fraud. Report It

it doesn't matter where the second home is at.

Did you listen to your own question?

You want to buy this property as an investment, but LIE about it to your lender and have it treated as a second home.

This is FRAUD.

Occupancy is a huge factor in mortgage fraud right now. Lenders literally pay people to come check up on you after you buy, to make sure that you didn't lie.

If they find out you immediately went to renting it out, they can do a couple things: Demand that you put whatever downpayment should have been required as an investment property AND pay the rate you should have paid, or just foreclose on you, and or turn you into the feds for fraud.

All of which are pretty crappy endings for you.

I don't quite understand what is wrong with people's perspective about lying on their mortgage applications. It's a federal crime, with real consequences, and everyone seems to think it's just no big deal. You're conning a bank into lending you hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's a very big deal. And people do go to prison for it.

So please, if you're going to do this, do it legit as an investment property. If you can put 10% down, you can still get rates very close to owner-occupied rates.

And your friend is NOT accurate about second homes. They absolutely can be in the same state. I'm in Minnesota, and thousands of families have lake homes and cabins as second homes. Some are less than 1 hour from their primary home.

No one would consider 2 homes in the same city to be second homes. But if there's a material difference in the homes, like urban and waterfront, they can definitely be in the same state, and don't necessarily have to be that far away (I'd say 50 miles is a good benchmark). Living in Vegas, if you had a condo or something up around Lake Tahoe, that'd be considered a legitimate 2nd home, for example, or even a mountain cabin somewhere in the Sierras.

Yes, if it can be reasonably considered a second home. Your lender friend is most definitely wrong about it having to be in a different state. Most lenders have a minimum distance requirement of 20 miles from your current residence, and it has to make sense to the underwriter. For example, a condo on a golf course or lakefront...

No question about it. You said it is investment property. Anyone who structures that loan otherwise has committed fraud.