How to go from owning a home, to owning a multi family property?

[Jacob Breazile]

I am a first time home buyer, and was initially planning to purchase a multi family property such as a duplex or triplex with FHA for my first home, and live out of one side. Now I have found that despite having no other debts, my student loans are inhibiting my ability to purchase a multi family property (I can only qualify for 210,000 - 220,000).

I can currently qualify for quite a bit more with a conventional loan on a single-family property. We can purchase a home and renovate it, which would provide us with more capital, but how would one go from owning a home, to owning a duplex/triplex? What is feasible and what isn't? Is there anyone who has been in a similar situation that would be willing to share what they've learned? My long term goal is to own many commercial real estate properties such as multi-family homes and apartments. I'll admit this questions is more open-ended than I'd like, but I'm feeling a bit lost.