How many doors can a property have to qualify for a residential loan? The FCU I go through offers loans up to 480k on a 25% down payment. Is this pretty typical across the board till you start making income from your investments?
A loan is considered residential if it is between 1 and 4 units and at least one of those units is occupied by the owner.
Perhaps those interest rates are very low with the credit union but $480k is a very low loan size cap. Typically, the lenders I work with will also want to see about 25% down but will lend up to 5 million. If you are willing to put down 25% than you don't necessary need to live there....
Most people who want to "house-hack" like this will use an FHA loan to acquire 2-4 units because of the low down payment and ability to use the rental income.