Question on FHA Loan Approval for Triplex

[Mike G.]

I contacted my Mortgage Broker and told him I was interested in buying a Triplex with an FHA loan and living in one of the units and his response was good luck with that. He said I would have about 1% chance of getting approved for an owner occupied conventional loan and even less of a chance getting approved for owner occupied FHA loan. He said the underwriters will not approve this because I am moving from a SFR to a Triplex and I wont be able to prove "Occupancy." He said they will be putting their job on the line approving this and most likely will disapprove it and if they do approve it they will just kick it up to their boss who will disapprove it. He said once I have tried applying and getting disapproved I will not be able to apply again with a different lender because there will now be notes in my file saying that I was disapproved for "Occupancy" and I will just be disapproved again.

I have never heard of this being an issue. I could see if someone was not actually planning to move into the Triplex, this could be a problem but this is not the case. 

Does anyone have any insight on this, for me?