In this case, you can use Rental Income from the units that you will not be living in and that income can count to help you qualify.FHA rates are going to be lower than conventional for you almost always, but FHA does have a 1.75% funding fee. 

They live in a semi HCOL area called Torrance (house is in a good zip code 90503).

I would let the tenant know that he is not authorized to live there.

Similarly, the sale ($575K) minus your adjusted basis determines your capital gain.You may qualify for the primary residence exclusion (up to $250K single/$500K married) if you lived there 2 of the last 5 years.

Hello, my name is Rachel, I live in Pennsylvania.

well if I ever make it to the Smokies to see what the draw is  I will rent a condo then :)  I am just guess but I suspect folks that go there want to be in the woods and hear the birds and maybe some local mtn views etc.. or some sort of privacy they never get at home out east were there is not very much public lands close to where they live in the big city. ????

I live in the greater DMV area.

We currently live in CA, but are moving to Illinois in the coming months - so this will be our state of residence soon.

They're not stuck as in "there are no other options", they're stuck as in "there are cheaper, crappier options but we'd have to pack up our entire lives and deal with the other expenses/headaches that come with moving so I guess we might as well just suffer with the increase". 

(They did multiple inspections, also came for several full afternoons to just poke around the house while we were living there.)