VA LOAN & debt to income ratio

[Maria Illilani]

Hello, we are working on building our wealth, but we aren't sure the best way to begin. We are thinking of purchasing multifamily homes each time we move to rent out, but we only have a little over a year left at this billet. We have heard that lenders won't count rental income when doing debt-to-income ratio if it's been less than two years, but I wasn't certain how this may affect our ability to get a new loan at our next PDS.

Would it make sense to get a cheaper house as our first one in order to qualify for more at our next unit? How exactly does the cost of the previous home mortgage vs rental income factor in when they calc the debt-to-income ratio and consider how much to loan us next time? Thank you all for your help and I wish you all the best!