This allows you to invest in the locations that offer the best ROI and make the most sense based on your goals where you can be a bit more passive in your investment property.

@Daniel Baker I would say a lot of it is based on their training or their resources that they utilize to complete your taxes.

Use the 20K as a down payment on the next house hack and don't touch your current properties equity.

I suspect there could be some truth behind Melanies claims based on that thread..

You could then choose a broad based index fund if you wanted to invest in the market.  

It's a 3 restaurant package in West Virginia (where we already have a base) and includes 1 piece of real estate.

They should be bale to guide you more based on what you are looking for in the area. 

I never thought about maybe they are assessing it based on wrong fundamentals such as you said.

In high-cost markets like Chicago, that can be tough to meet.If you're looking at a duplex, the self-sufficiency test doesn’t apply, so you’d just need to qualify based on your personal income and the rental income your lender allows.If your current lender isn’t familiar with making FHA work in your situation, it might be worth getting a second opinion from someone experienced with FHA multi-unit financing.

There are too many factors to consider to just provide base rates for what you're asking.