Owner occupied mortgage advice

[Chris M.]

The wife and I are expecting a new addition to our family next year and we're already out of room in our current townhouse. I haven't had to purchase a primary residence in quite a while. The current house was bought pre-construction near the end of the last boom and we took our lumps like everyone else but were able to refi under HARP2 a few years ago. The place is still underwater though and my DTI is a little high since I have concentrated on building up the rental units over the years.

So I'm putting this out there to see what others are seeing these days in terms of qualifications for an owner occupied mortgage. I do have most of what I think I need, a FICO over 800, 6 months reserves on all my places and well documented income on my tax returns from my primary job and rental units. My DTI as I sad is a little high (around 45% by my calculations) as I'm carrying 3 mortgages right now, with my current primary being the largest.

I was considering renting out my current home and renting a place for a year or so to offset the current mortgage and potentially make it easier to qualify for another loan. Any advice or experiences that could be shared would be appreciated.