Our secondary market lender was just curious how others are handling this situation. Customer is wanting to get funds to fix up a house that he has owned for years but does not live in in order to sell it. Since its a potential income property, could this be considered a commercial purpose loan?

Thank you.

Has it been a rental property? Selling a vacant home that used to be your residence is a consumer purpose transaction.

Whether a loan is consumer or business purpose is all about what the borrower will do with the loan proceeds and nothing to do with what a purchaser might do with the property. I agree with Kaybee. Unless your borrower is in the business of buying and selling dwellings, this appears to be a personal (read: consumer) loan.