The home was on a full walkout basement with an attached garage and featured 3 bedrooms and two baths up, with an additional bedroom, and office/ non conforming bedroom in the basement along with a family room and half bath.What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

I wonder if there is a way around the 36” egress door requirement that LADB&S is requiring me to conform with.

@Filmon Haile, they type of loan you're asking about will likely be non-conforming or commercial, which means you'll pay more expensive terms (higher interest rate, shorter term, etc), which drives your payments up - sometimes significantly. 

@Joshua Costa it’s not clear what your question is, but I’m assuming you’re asking if there’s a way to buy another property with FHA sooner, despite what your mortgage guy said.Since it’s a Federal program (FHA), the fact that it’s in R.I. doesn’t affect anything.I think you could/should ask the question of another mortgage person but I’d be prepared for the answer to be the same.I also always recommend building relationships with local banks and credit unions who hold onto their loans (portfolio lenders), like Pawtucket Credit Union, Navigant, Washington Trust, Coastway (now Harbor One) etc.Often down payment requirements are a little higher, but not always, and you get a lot more variation/flexibility because they set their own terms for the loans - they’re not reselling them on the secondary market so the loans don’t have to fit into a rigid box (be “conforming” in mortgage-speak).I think it’s worth exploring, especially to start building long term banking relationships which will help when you buy more properties, but you may still find FHA is the best deal - it’s hard to compete with the Federal government :)I did a little research and it seems you’re mortgage person might be right, but I still think you will learn a lot from checking with another source and especially meeting local lenders.

We just pulled permits for a non-conforming studio in Sacramento and paid almost $20k in permit fees.

Otherwise if you're looking at single family homes then 5% down is allowed on a regular conforming mortgage as Valery suggested. 

So there is no association to review architectural conformity and other restrictions contained in the document.  

If this property is historical in the sense that it is on or may be placed on a historical register, the renovation project will also have to conform to a set of conditions that will generally have to do with maintaining all or significant portions of existing architectural elements such as facades, building materials and colors.Historical or not, any planned project will have to be heavily vetted in terms of existing conditions and projected uses for all major building elements such as structural, electrical, plumbing, mechanical and ADA and ANSI provisions.

@Craig ClarkIf you are a cash buyer, then you can absolutely do an immediate cash out refi without waiting - even into a conforming loan.

get on the mailing list of all auction companies in your area, attend auctions,deal with trustees on no sales, subscribe to the Legal record in your area, follow tax sales, sit in housing and rent court.run ads in papers and radio - WANTED real estate, houses, commercial and non-conforming properties, any condition to purchase, control or assign.