Portfolio Mortgage - Unwarrantable Condo Help!

[Bradley E.]

Good Afternoon! I am trying to find the right lender to help me with a little bit of a niche situation. I am a 1st time home buyer, and am looking to purchase a condo. However, the building we are looking at is unwarrantable due to: there is an entity that owns more than 10% and the ratio of owner occupied vs rentals. I work for a large university in the state of Georgia, so the area is a "large college town", which means there are lots of investors who buy condos / houses and re-rent them out to students. This makes it extremely, extremely hard to get a condo, because most condos that are close to town are unwarrantable due to the investor concentration. I have found a unit in which I really, really like, so I have been searching for a portfolio mortgage, and have seemed to come up short: either they require a high down payment or the interest is so high, it would hurt more than help. I love what I do for a living, but of course, I dont make a huge salary.

I have been researching and researching, and have not come up with many good solutions. But, with the time I have spent, I have been able to lock down some key details that might help for this forum. I have called banks, credit unions, etc and have put in the time so far, but have not really found anything favorable. I am looking for a decent lender, that can write a mortgage in GA, and can help with a portfolio mortgage taking into consideration my situation. I am trying to find a few lenders that KNOW they can do this type of loan. I am hoping this forum might be able to help. Here are the details:

Unit
- Unwarrantable Condo
- There are owners that have more than 10% of the units. This unwarrantable status is something I can almost guarantee will not change. Mortgage program has got to take my situation into account and realize it is a college town with lots of rentals.
- Unit would be my primary residence

Income
-Salary is $35,863

Debts on Credit Report
- Student loans are $113 per month. I will be on the REPAYE (a income based repayment plan) starting on 5/1/18. The $113 amount is not currently reflected on credit report, but I can get letter from FedLoan Servicing, as it wont appear on credit report until after 5/1/18 payment. The mortgage program must be able to take actual payment on credit report or amount on student loan servicer letter in lieu of credit report amount, even if it is an income based repayment plan (1 % of the entire loan balance for DTI would not work).

- Credit Card: $103 per month. I can possibly get this balance down to $0 before closing.

- ALL other credit cards and lines are at a $0 balance.

HOA
- $160 per month

Property Tax
- We have been estimating property tax around $1650. That breaks down to about $138 per month.

Credit Score
- Credit Karma is 754.

Purchase Price
- Owner wants estimated $175,000 - 180,000.

Down Payment
- $5000 - 10,000 depending on closing costs, fees, etc. I know this is not a huge amount, but with my salary range, this is a HUGE amount to us!!!!

Closing Costs
- We would have to estimate buyer (me) paying 100% of closing costs and fees.

Agent
- Owner of unit will not sell unit if real estate agent is involved. He will not pay % fee. I am not against this if an inspection comes out ok.

Is there any advice out there where someone can help point me in the right direction? I would love a few ideas; I am so new to all of this, and I am trying to get the headache to go away: