Connecticut - First deal update and slight frustrations

[Blake Williams]

Hello everyone! I'm a new investor working on getting my first rental property before the year is out. In a nutshell, my plan is to use the FHA program to get either a three or four unit home and owner occupy while renting out the other units. Now, here in CT we have our own program called CHFA which can also pay your down payment and closing costs. I intend to use both of these together to get my first property with no money down.

I've also recently realized that I'm more than likely going to need to use FHA 203k because at my price range (~120k) most of the properties need work before they can be rented out.

As far as my frustration, I currently work full time at a bank.  My employer gives incentives such as discounts on fees etc... to associates looking to finance a property with them.  As a result, I've been in talks with their mortgage department to do just that.

Unfortunately, I was told that they don't work with CHFA but that there are other down payment assistance programs that they do use and I just need to find one that works.  I was also given a phone number to speak with someone from the Mutual Housing Association of Greater Hartford.  That is a program that the bank will work with and they recommended I see if it was a good fit.

What's wrong with all of that you may ask?  Well, when I got on the phone with someone from the mutual housing association, they told me that they are really just CHFA.  Now I've got conflicting information.  The bank won't work with CHFA but will work with the mutual housing association.  The mutual housing association IS the same CHFA that the bank won't work with.

To make matters worse, no matter how many times I call I have not been able to get someone on the phone who can make sense of this discrepancy.  

Honestly, I know this is not a huge problem and I'm going to schedule some time for me to speak with someone in the mortgage department because I can't seem to get a hold of them on my own time.  It's just frustrating and it's also making me reconsider using this bank for my mortgage.  If something as simple as this is such a hassle, it makes me question what doing business with them on a larger scale would really be like?

Also, before anyone asks I feel I should let you know that one of the terms of my employment is that there are specific ways I can speak about them on social media.  As much as I'd like to tell you what bank I'm talking about, I'd be putting my job at risk and I'm not at a point where I'm willing to do that.

If you've gotten this far then thanks for reading!  I'm curious to know if any of you have been in a similar situation and how you handled it?  Also, what would you do if you were in my place right now?