There are caps on income, assistance amount, and restrictions on being a first time home buyer.

They were noisy and allowed their small children to run around loudly at all hours of the night (dad worked and odd shift so the kids were up at night a lot)... they were in an upstairs unit of a duplex.

Conventional financing will offer the most competitive rates but can be more income restrictive and can be unscalable as investor portfolio expand.

Odds are good your cashflow would go up.  

Not sure if his list got stolen but the timing seems odd with this thread and all that is being said. 

If you want to purchase another home without fulfilling these criteria, VA will only guarantee your total outstanding loan amount up to the county loan limit of the home you wish to purchase next.There may be other restrictions such as how many you can have or how many in a single city.

This is particularly restrictive when attempting to qualify for larger balance home equity lines of credit of $350-400-500K. 

You would not be able to purchase an LTR as a second home because access would be restricted and the property would be subject to an occupancy agreement limiting use.Please be careful about listening to advice other than from a licensed loan officer. 

I've heard of restrictions for buildings on the historical register. 

Since ADU rules were liberalized by Seattle in 2019 (one attached + one detached allowed on any single-family lot, no owner-occupancy requirement, no restriction against separate sale). a number of spec builders in Seattle have been building what may look like a townhouse triplex but is legally a single family primary homes plus two ADUs, one attached and one detached.