Bank wont count rental income profit as income for loan qualif??

[Brett Rhine]

Not sure if this is the right forum section or not but since I'm a total newbie I thought it belonged here. 

Knowing where you want to go begins with knowing where you are, and with that in mind I reached out to a national bank just to see what kind of mortgage I could qualify for and how I would best improve my current situation in case I needed to use conventional financing.

My credit score is mid-700s, about $15k in consumer debt (which is coming down). The main problem for the bank is that my base income is low-ish (I'm in a salary+commission job) and I dont have 2 yrs of history in this job for them to go on. 

Here is the part that puzzled me...when the bank asked me what I want to do with my current home I own I told him that I intend to rent it and move into the next home I buy. So it seemed like he was calculating whether my base income can satisfy two mortgages. Is that normal? I understand that there is no guarantee that the house would rent at all, but why wouldn't he include anything about having the potential for rental income into my calculation? 

I realize a lot of you are probably smacking your foreheads at what I assume is probably a "duh" question, but this is where I am and any advice or counsel would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks!