Financing Second Owner Occupied Property and Renting Out First

[Scott Scotter]

Need some help please!

Duplexes are very pricey in my market, so I am debating buying a single family home as my first purchase. My plan would be to live in the house for about a year and get a couple of roommates, then buy another property and rent out the first property to new tenants. This would hopefully set me on the right path to owning multiple investment properties in the future. 

Everything I am reading online is saying that in order to be approved for a second property, I need to be able to afford both mortgages without any rental income factored in. I have a decent job, but getting approved for two mortgages without the rental income factor seems impossible. My conventional lender is telling me that I need the property rented for 8 months before it can be factored in as income. If I recall correctly, FHA requires two years landlord experience.

So, it seems my only options are to either:

1. Buy an owner occupied duplex as originally planned. This allows me to start building landlord experience right off the bat. As I said, they are very expensive in my market, and the good ones are not on the market for more than 15-20 days.

2. Buy an owner occupied single family home with a piggyback loan (no FHA) and live in it for a very short period of time. When I have tenants who are willing to sign a lease, I would move out and rent a place myself for 8 months. This would allow me to acquire landlord experience. I could then buy another house without having to cover both mortgages entirely since rental income can now be factored into the equation.

Any advice would be much appreciated!