Second home purchase and DTI

[Christopher Arter]

I bought my first home with an FHA loan. It was a modest 157k house, but I only make about 43k a year, plus I have about 26k in student loans and a 14k car loan, so my DTI is pretty tapped (I'm undoing and re-educated myself on personal finance). I want to buy another home and rent out my first home. I know lenders won't consider the projected income of my rental of my house for my DTI, so I'm sort of stuck.

Are my only options to wait, chip away at my student loans for a few more years? I Does Brandon's Low & No Money Down address getting around the DTI issue when trying to buy the second (first investment) home? Or is it time to start thinking about creative financing & sweat equity kind of partnerships?