Philly Zoning Obstacle- Looking to Tackle!!

[Melanie Ruff]

I have been looking for my first investment property for the last 90 days. Owner occupied multi-family. I’ve looked at dozens of houses and have even placed three offers that were ultimately rejected for a different offer. I finally found a house that I am going to be putting an offer in today, and everything seemed to be smooth sailing until my realtor calls me and tells me that the property is not zoned correctly. 

It is a three-story duplex in Brewerytown. It is currently zoned as RSA5 and needs to be zoned RM1. Since I am moving forward with an FHA loan my lender said the zoning must be proper before going to settlement or else the loan will be denied. Initially, this didn't seem like the biggest issue in the world because I have no issue doing the hard work myself or from what I've been reading just hiring an expediter and getting it done and over with.

However, my realtor also says since it is technically not my house I cannot do the work to get the proper zoning permit. Over the course of the last two hours, here are the options that I have determined that I have. Any help in validating these options or advice on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated. I really want this house!

1) increase the offer on the listing slightly to compensate for the current owner to do the zoning himself as a contingency of the offer. 2) hire a expediter/zoning lawyer to work on behalf of both of us to get the proper zoning acquired and have a contract in place that says once this action is executed the seller will sell the house only to me. 3) buy the house as is and get it appraised as a single-family home which could ultimately negatively affect my lending power, but once the house is under my ownership I could file for the proper zoning and continue with plans as originally wanted.  4) I read an article that said if I do go under contract for this house the current owner could give written permission for me as the buyer to go ahead and undertake the process of getting the proper zoning acquired. Does anyone know if this is true for Philadelphia?

THANK YOU!