They allow you to include up to 6 months of rent payments in the loan if you are unable to occupy the premises during the renovation.Just to be complete, it's also worth mentioning that both the VA and USDA have renovation loans.

The good news is owner occupying allows you to get away with things like this a bit more. 

New occupants will be coming soon, but in a 3 family, i have set of excellent student tenants that renewed.That said, many landlord insurance policies have exclusions for students, so I am trying to gather info on updating a policy to consider the fact that the building is only going to be 33% student occupied.  

I went owner occupied either conventional or FHA.  3-5% down at the time you only had to live there 1 year and then you can move out or move on. 

This means there may be less competition from professional investors, especially in areas where the demand for owner-occupied homes is strong.In short, if you are just entering the real estate market and don’t yet have the capital to compete directly with investors for multifamily properties, focusing on single-family homes could be a more strategic choice.

All units are occupied.

The tenant who occupies the property pays the rent.

Fannie Mae has a requirement that if you want to use the rental income from the non occupied units, that you MUST have a current housing expense which means you cannot live rent free.

If you could do it differently, owner occupied is easiest to get a HELOC on and has the lowest interest rates.  

Your answer needs to make sense, and be true.Also refi'ing your current primary into an investment loan also has the potential to be fraudulent if your family still occupies it as their primary.