Omitting rental property mortgage from debt

[Hiro Kitagawa]

Hello BPers,

I just started renting my condo to a tenant at the beginning of April.  Upon speaking with two loan officers on conventional loan, I received quite contrasting answers.  My questions was if I'm getting rental income to offset the mortgage, if they would "omit" that debt and enable me to qualify for higher amount of loan.

National bank said:

Yes, if you provide (1) signed lease agreement, (2) security deposit and (3) first month rent, then we can negate your rental property debt (mortgage) and qualify you to a higher loan.  As you provided them, you can go shop now.

Community bank said:

Yes but only if you have held the property for 24 months or more.  Otherwise we will have to count the rental property mortgage as full debt.  This is Fannie Mae regulation so it would be true for all banks selling the loan to them.  

What are you all's understanding on this?