How Long Before You Can Take Out Another Loan

[Valerie King]

Here's my plan. My first home will be a multifamily residence (duplex to quad) with a loan in my name. I live there for the two-year minimum. (Doesn't it officially count as an income property after that?) Then my boyfriend and I get married. I move out of that home and we move into a multifamily residence that he buys with a loan in his name. 

At that point, we've taken advantage of the low money down option that owner-occupied residences get. But then what? Whether we stay with the two multifamily properties and just get our own single family home, or we move into another multifamily residence, how will we get a loan if we both still have loans in our names? I guess I'm asking, once I've occupied my multifamily for two years and we've occupied his multifamily for two years, how do we move on from there? Is it even possible to take out more loans in our own names without having the initial loans paid off? 

I don't really want to go too far into investment. I think I'd be fine with us keeping our W2 jobs and having two rental properties on the side. Just wondering how we'll get our actual single family home once we've invested in the first two multi-families.