House Hacking financing question

[Joshua Huss]

Hi all!

My wife and I are working on purchasing our first rental property. We currently own a SFR that we live in. I was thinking about purchasing a small multi-family to house hack while turning our current primary residence into a rental. My mortgage lender is telling me that we would have to put 30% down on a conventional loan to purchase a multi-family even if it will be owner occupied. She further informed me that FHA will not allow us to use our rental income on either property to qualify so our current primary residence would only increase our debt to income ratio.

I am reaching out to other lenders to see if they have products that might help. In the meantime, does anyone know if there are mortgage products that might help in this situation or other creative ideas that would allow us to keep our current property as a rental without putting down 30% on a new small multi?