Physician Loan vs. FHA loan for duplex/triplex

[Wendell Carmona]

Good Evening everyone!

I have finally finished my residency and will be starting my first job in Buffalo, NY this upcoming August. I am interested in purchasing my first home now that I am no longer a student/resident and am having troubling deciding which type of loan to use. Ideally, I will be using the house hacking method so I would like to purchase a duplex/triplex. If anyone could answer these questions for me, it would really help in my decision:

Can a physician loan be used to finance the purchase a multi-family home?

From my understanding, you are only required to live in one of the units for one year through the FHA loan. Does the same apply for the physician loan or does it have to be your primary residence for the life of the loan?

Does a physician loan also finance possible renovations along with the cost of the house like a FHA 203(K)?

Can a FHA loan be used to buy your second/new primary residence?

Are there better options where I can put less than 5-10% down?

Thanks for the help! Also forgive me if any part of my limited knowledge on the matter is incorrect!

[Aaron Hunt]

I’m a physician as well. Finished residency in 2018. Had bought two homes during residency with 5% down each. Kept them both and due to market appreciation they are now cash-flow rentals with $100k in equity each. Then used my sign-on bonus to buy our 3rd rental.

For my primary, I went with Fulton Bank, they gave me up to $1.5 million with 0% down, No PMI, and a 3.5% rate.

Would be awesome to have scaled up into a multi-fam, just wasn’t in the cards for us though.