Loan Qualification on second mortgage

[Daniel Lambert]

Hello all, 

My wife and I were so close to buying our first duplex to begin our portfolio. However, we backed out of said deal because we found out we would only qualify for a certain amount of money on a second loan that was way too low for the market I live in. Basically, if we bought the duplex, we couldn't qualify for another loan that would let us buy another duplex or even a single family home. 

Have any of you had similar situations? My wife and I did not want to be "stuck" in the duplex for longer than we needed to be in pursuing the growth of our portfolio. The duplex would have been way too small for our family to live in for more than a year. And all the duplexes that would be big enough is way too expensive and wouldn't allow us to cash flow and still would cause us to not qualify for another loan. 

Any help would be great in how we can move forward.