My lender said intent matters on the occupancy year, which makes me nervous

He probably wasn't warning you off the strategy. He was telling you not to say things in a mortgage application that contradict the occupancy certification you're going to sign. Those are different messages and they sound the same when you're nervous.

Go back to him. A loan officer who tells you the awkward thing on the first call is worth more than one who nods at everything. Ask two questions plainly. What is the occupancy period on the program you're recommending, and where is it written. Then ask what documentation he'd need from you a year from now to count rent from this house when you apply for the next loan. That second question tells you whether he's done this before, and it doesn't require you to characterize your intentions at all.

For what it's worth, 2,050 against 1,450 today and 61k of income is a real jump and the house will find things to spend money on in the first six months. What's left of the 22k after down payment and closing?

canton's second question is the good one. I'd add a third: ask him what he charges and what the lender overlays are versus a credit union in your area. Shop it. You'll get three different reserve requirements and it costs you nothing but phone calls.

The answer that helped me when I was figuring this out: you're not doing anything clever. You're buying a house to live in with the financing that's available to people who live in houses. A year or two later you move somewhere else and keep the first one. That's a normal thing that a lot of people do by accident when they can't sell.

Where it goes wrong is when somebody buys a place they never intend to sleep in and signs a paper saying otherwise. Don't be that. Live in it.

One thing nobody's said: the house you'd pick as a home and the house you'd pick as a rental are usually different houses, and in this strategy you have to pick one house for both jobs. Finished basement you love, weird floor plan, the long driveway you'll shovel happily and a tenant will complain about. Before you make an offer, price what it rents for and check that the layout is one three unrelated people would live in. I run turnovers for a living and the ones that go badly are almost always somebody's personal taste being marketed as a rental.