Financing on first primary residence

[Larissa Asay]

Me and my husband are looking to purchase our first primary residence. We found a place that, with a little renovation, can have the basement rented out. Originally when shopping for a home we intened to do a conventional loan with 10% down. Now that we found this place, we would like to use some of that original down money for renovations and getting it "rent ready" as soon as possible.

When I inquired about switching to an FHA our loan officer immediately told me we wouldn't qualify because of our DTI even after asking about cutting our debt in half. For reference we would only have about 25k in debt on one vehicle loan and my husband makes 68k a year. We both have excellent credit scores. I don't believe he really looked into our options and qualifications. I know he didn't consider our potential rental income towards our DTI. They want to send the loan into underwriting today and haven't even sent us documents on the renegotiated price of the home. Being new I don't want to be taken advantage of and miss better opportunities because they want to push this through as fast as possible. What should I do at this point? Ask for an extention on the closing date? Call and try to renegotiate the loan terms? Could I speak to other lenders? Im not aginst selling our car either to bring the debt down. I understand it would be a short term sacrifice for long term gains.