House Hack a REI...prior to purchasing "Forever Home"?

[Todd Kalsey]

Hello fellow BPers!   If I may, let me give you the "lay of the land" before posing my question.

My wife and I currently are looking to sell our primary residence, a small SF 2/1 in the spring.  We also own another SF 2/1 that we've rented out for the last 7 years and it's a solid cash flow property. We definitely want to expand our portfolio in the future, but are in need of more space due to kids.  We need more space ASAP...but would like to "hack" the opportunity for a few reasons.  So.... 

We've been contemplating making our next move as purchasing a multi-family (duplex, fourplex) and moving in for a year. The primary reason being that we'd do an FHA loan and also that it would alleviate the need to sell the following year when we look to purchase our "forever" home. Our rationale is:

1. Save a bit of $ of the next year with tenant(s) helping to pay mortgage.  Build up a bit more for our down payment on our primary residence.

2. "House Hack" to pick up another property for our portfolio

3. When looking for our "forever" home, we can look w/o have the pressure of having to unload a home.

Any thoughts?  Has anyone done this?   Will picking up the extra rental property and residing in it negatively impact our ability for the next mortgage?   (*I'm waiting on a call back from our mortgage broker)

I would love to execute the strategy but don't want it to hinder the possibility so us qualifying.  Appreciate any insights!    Thanks BP.