mortgage broker says i wont get approved to house hack?

[Sherwin Vargas]

my and my brother bought a 3 family home in pawtucket, RI. I have about 25k and I wanted to try to get another 3 family home only in my name in pawtucket, RI . The mortgage broker said because its the same type of property in the same city that i would have to put down the 20% for an investment property this was after running all my information, I mentioned me and my brother are sharing an apartment in the first building i would be living alone in the second but he said it would not matter. 

Is this normal ? is there anything I could do apart from buying in another city? 

Also my other brother is in the approval process after all is said and done with conservative estimates we will have 25k again what would be our best option for real estate since we would not be approved for another mortgage.