Buy 1st duplex to house hack or pay off debt?

[Hannah McBee]

I have $14,600 available to either pay off a 9% interest rate personal loan or put as a DPymt on our 1st property. Currently our Debt to Income ratio is just over the limit to qualify for an FHA loan. We dont have access to private money but AM open to hard money if we cant qualify for bank loan. Our goal is to buy a duplex or triplex, house hack a couple years then refi to buy our 2nd property.

Heres my dilemma. If I pay off the personal loan, it will lower our debt to income ratio so we can qualify for a 203K loan and house hack a multiplex. But it will take us several months to save up enough for a DPyment and closing costs. However, if I dont pay off the loan and instead use it for a property, we wont qualify for traditional lending due to DTI being barely over their limits. So we would have to figure out funding somehow else.

What would you do with the $14,600 in my situation? Am I overlooking another option? Thanks!