@Doug PetersProperties in Hamilton County are always desirable to both investors and owner occupants.

At that point, my thinking was that the home would be a great rental as  inventory in the area tends to be very limited.Short version of the situation is that the subdivision's HOA allows for only single family owner occupants. 

One of them had unauthorized occupants (baby daddy and other family) repeatedly and thought she could get away with it. 

Assuming I have the highest bid for owner occupancy of course.

A certificate of occupancy explicitly stating it is a 3-unit? 

It really depends on tenant laws in the area in which the property is located.If I were to allow an owner to stay in possession after the close of escrow, I might say something to the effect of, "[Occupant’s name] is granted permission to remain in possession of the property for a period not to exceed 60 days.

We are interested in the home as an owner occupant.   

Being an owner-occupant also has huge benefits for the financing you can get.Cheers!

Just to clear up a misconception, if a multi is in distressed condition, or low or no occupancy, or both, then hard money can be a good choice to acquire, rehab and stabilize to make it ready for take out funding at better rates on conventional, whether residential or commercial. 

I get a call from the lender today (NFCU) telling me that underwriting cannot approve the deal because the HOA has an inadequate budget, high investor occupancy concentration, and high delinquency.