What should I do next? (Metro Detroit Area)

[Will Koederitz]

Hello,

I am seeking advice for my next move.  For a quick background, I moved to Royal Oak, MI in July 2014 and purchased a property to live in.  This was before I knew anything about real estate investing. 

I started learning about investing in real estate February 2015 and purchased another property (closed about a month ago) as a rental.  I have a signed lease that started May 1 and the tenant will be moving in the middle of this month. 

When I purchased my primary residence, it was near the higher end of what I qualified for (~$190k) and when I purchased the rental property, I could only qualify for about $75k.  The rental property purchase price was $63k. 

Now that it appears I am maxed out, what can I do?  The mortgage company I dealt with for the rental said I could use 75% of the rental income toward my income ratios as long as I had a signed lease.  I am not sure how legitimate that is hearing it from the loan officer.

Several options I've considered are:

1. Renting my primary residence out.  Should still cash flow but I could cash flow more with a few cheaper properties. Problem is where do I live if I need a signed lease for my place before I can qualify for the next property?

2. Sell my primary residence, move into a cheaper place, allowing myself more room to purchase another property?

I've also considered multi-family to house-hack.

I guess I am getting a little confused and may just need to speak with multiple lenders now to see what each says I qualify for.  Any information and suggestions would be appreciated on this topic and thanks for reading.

-Will