FHA Loan for Live-In Duplex/Tri/Quad when you own another home?

[Priscilla Velentgas]

Hello, At the planning stage of looking into the real estate rental market and have been listening to BP podcast for a while. The shortest path to get there for my husband and me based on time to save down payment would be an FHA loan for likely a triplex or quad property. A couple of years ago we built a single family home about an hour outside of where we would like to purchase the investment property, and have no interest in selling it or fully relocating. I understand the rule is you need to live in the dwelling 50% or more of the time for it to qualify as primary residence to qualify for the FHA loan. We would in fact be able to readily do that, and have family, one of our jobs, and daughter going to community college in the area we'd be buying this future investment property, but I'm wondering how much scrutiny this rule gets and if we'd have any problems with lenders? Again to be clear we would plan on following the requirement of the 50+% residence time, not skirting it, but wondering how common this is and if we should expect skepticism from lenders. Thanks for any thoughts and experience!