Can am FHA loan be used for a duplex in Tennessee?

[Austin C Mulholland]

Ok so I'm good friends with a Real Estate agent here in Nashville TN and she told me that in Tennessee I can't use an FHA loan to buy a duplex. I was planning on house hacking it, but she told me the state would consider it an investment property thus making it ineligible for the FHA. I can't find anything saying that I can't do it, so I thought I'd try asking people here instead if it's allowed in TN or not. TIA!

Side note, I'm a new user here, I'm 23 and found out about real estate investing through Graham Stephan on YouTube!

[Luke Carl]

@Austin C Mulholland this agent is not a good one. This would be like buying a car that runs on regular gas and the sales person tells you it's a diesel. Find a better agent. Yes you can do FHA as long as you live in it and it's 4 units or less.

Ask the agent a couple more questions to make sure you didn’t misunderstand. 

You don’t need a rockstar that sells 100 properties a year because you’re new and can’t add value to them (like buying a bunch of houses) but you certainly need someone that knows what they’re doing.

To take it one step further FHA has nothing to do with "Tennessee" the F in fact stands for "Federal" so it's not state specific. Sounds like your agent has to go. Always ask an agent how many properties they own. You can generally google them and see how many they sell. Choosing the right agent is a big piece of the puzzle in the early days.

Another issue is Nashville prices are so high compared to rents that just looking at Zillow will cost you money (that’s a joke). Finding a property that won’t break the bank will be tough. 

Good luck!