Contact your broker and ask him or her.
You have a current relationship with them, they will welcome a paying customers new business.
You can obtain a basic lease agreement online for your family member to sign if you don't have one now.
A signed lease agreement is important.
A lease amount which will cover all expenses:
Mortgage
Insurance
Taxes
add $ for repair expenses.
Make sure tenants obtain renters insurance for their personal items.
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ALSO: The mention from Bill on homestead exemption.
All Homestead Exemptions undergo an approval process and are posted the first week of March for the year for which they are applied. So, lets say you rented and bought your new home in April of 2009. You will not be able to transfer the exemption on your current home so you would then have to wait until March of the following year, in order to file for a Exemption on your new home. So inturn your current home which you will be renting to your family member will still be under the exemption.

This translates to the fact: You have up to a year to transfer your homestead from one residence to another. Now I guess you could contact the Pasco County Property Appraisers office and tell them you have rented your home, come out and adjust the taxes or you can not contact them until the following tax year next March.................

Amendment 1 info:

It has four major provisions:

Make tax benefits from Save Our Homes "portable."
Increase the exemption for homesteaded homeowners.
Cap property assessment hikes for nonhomesteaded property at 10 percent annually.
Create a $25,000 property exemption for some business equipment and mobile home property.

I have provided the link below which offers answers to related questions. Assuming your property is in pasco.

http://appraiser.pascogov.com/FAQ.asp

Other things I have heard from some lenders are they are requiring (1) substantial equity in that first house - it varies by area but I have seen as high as 40%, as low as 25%... and (2) that the loan that is on the current home is an investment loan, so they are requiring people to refinance the house they are moving from.

Kara,

Per discussions with a couple of mortgage brokers, you will need to show a lease and they will allow up to 75% of the rent as income to offset your current mortgage expenses. Your qualification for the new loan will add about 25% of your current mortgage expenses to your DTI ratio, so it may bring down your purchasing power a little bit. Please keep in mind that when you rent your current home and buy a new homestead, your first home will not be homesteaded and your taxes will go up. We would be happy to guide you thru this with the proper new house and a reputable mortgage broker.

Bill Szydlowki
The Szydlowski Team
Future Home Realty
813-323-4443
billszydlowski@msn.com