iI you're desperate, have you considered taking on a roommate or two? 

Because it is an FHA loan, I plan on living in one of the units with paying roommate/roommates while I finish up college.

I have only had one instance of a pet in the student rental,  a cat and it lead to roommate conflict. 

I agree with the part about allowing roommate income to be included.

I've owned my townhouse for 16 years and can't afford it anymore    I've had 3 different roommates here over the past 15 months and am having a hard time finding another.  

If I were young, single, and w/out kids, I'd probably do a live-in flip, fix up over 2 years, maybe with some roommates, and sell tax free (or rent it out or continue to live there if the market tanks). 

The verbal agreement was that my roommate would pay half of rent and utilities.

So about a month ago we had a pipe burst in one of our unit, water ran from upstairs bathroom down to kitchen and into basement. water remediation company had fans and dehumidifiers in that tenants place for about a week running continuously. their utilities bill webt from being approx $50 normally to about $108 dollars so around double. theres 3 roommates in that unit and each one got a $100 disount for that months rent to compensate for any contractors coming in and out and not having hot water for about 5 days. my question is should i pay for the additional electricity used caused most likely by the dehumidifiers and fans?

I'm thinking it would be smart to use an FHA loan and not wait to save up a large down payment, just because rent makes up such a large percentage of my expenses, even with roommates, and having access to a piano will allow me to perform more often and increase my income further.The biggest question I'm having troubles figuring out is this:How easy is it for someone that's self-employed to get an FHA loan?

Unfortunately I don't think most people are like this, after living with quite a few different roommates.