My guess is the loan is conforming to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac underwriting standards.

I called zoning and they confirmed, due to the age of the buildings, it's deemed "Legal, non-conforming".  

If they are dealing in your area, they should be willing to conform to the typical way of doing business. 

Conforming, Conventional loans are governed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (if you recognize those names). 

The best performing 4-plexes will be non-conforming homes. 

Lastly, you can also do highly rentals in Turtle Bay on the North Shore.Secondly, if a property has a non conforming use permit (NUC), you can do nightly rentals - regardless of the location of the property on O'ahu.Thirdly, and fortunately, the Bill added two buildings in Waikiki that can be used as highly rentals - the Waikiki Banyan and Waikiki Sunset.  

Hey there My husband and I found a property we would like to buy and build on. The property has two manufactured homes on it, and banks won't touch it. Our plan was to buy with little down,  live in one unit and start...

Drawbacks: Still have more addresses than MF, higher $/ft than MF, higher INITIAL rate MF, limited maximum number of 30yr fixed conforming loans you can get, higher expenses than SFH (utilities, etc), lower $/ft in rents in 2-4 compared to SFH..

Once you no longer conform to traditional mortgage financing, big banks are not a good option. 

As an MLO, I can tell you there is nothing that disqualifies someone for a conforming loan more than a truck payment.