5% Down on Conventional Loan - Realistic?

[Daniel Monte de Ramos]

Hi all!

I just landed a job in healthcare in the Charlottesville, VA area. The market here isn't a good place to invest in real estate, so I'm looking for properties in other cities/states. I want to invest using a buy-and-hold strategy with multi-family homes, maybe a triplex or a quadplex to aim for cashflow from rentals.

Since I want to start investing as soon as possible and I am not planning to live in the house I am buying (disqualifying me for an FHA loan), I would like to know, what are the chances these days of getting a 5% down on a conventional loan approved?

Apart from having good credit (which I do have), what are some other factors lenders will look at when considering a 5% down payment with PMI? Work stability? Salary? I will be making around $46,000 a year from my job at a very good company.