Doctor loan for a single family residence

[Monique Sison]

It’s my first time searching for a house and getting pre-approved by a lender. I’m a newly graduated dentist and since I have $360k in student loans I don’t qualify with most lenders without a co-signer. I did get qualified in my own with Bank of America for their doctor loan but only on a single family home and not a duplex. From my understanding, banks view single family homes the same as small multi family. Is this not the case?

Also.. I live in Orange County, CA and want to house hack but the average price of a 3 bedroom 2 bath is $500-$600k which just wouldn’t cash flow positively if I rented out the other 2 rooms. I’m contemplating out-of-state investing, but I’m a brand new investor so I’m not sure if I should take on that challenge. Thoughts?