My primary mortgage is with them and I haven’t had any problems. 

If it’s conventional, and you plan on buying the new multi-unit as a primary, then you can use FHA.

What metric or ratio does everyone use to determine how much primary house to buy (rules of thumb)? 

However, I have stayed persistent and some non traditional financing options have gradually presented themselves.Recently, I came across a deal that I thought had some potential.

I believe that this exemption can only be implemented in a house hack or primary residence so just looking for anyone with experience doing this and if it is helpful in cost savings.

My husband and I recently purchased a $1.5M SFR that will be our primary home (we rented-out our former SFR). 

I don't believe a traditional financial institution will qualify her for either a cashout refi or HELOC/home equity loan. is there any other way to access this? 

My primary focus for the Houston RE market are flips and wholesaling.I'm also interested in attending RE meetups and networking sessions if anyone knows of goods meetup dates this is something I'm highly interested in as well.I'm pretty new to the Houston Tx market and would like to know more about knowledge on the area such as up and coming neighborhoods, market trends and general location of the neighborhoods. 

Keep in mind your primary residence counts as 1.

At this point I have a few traditional lenders (local banks charging 4.75-5’ish %) that can close in 30 days.