Starting out (Saving for first multi family)

[Tramaine Robinson]

Hello all, long story short I’m an Accountant in the Waukesha Wisconsin area and between me and my girlfriend we make about $90k a year. I’m pretty frugal and plan to have saved $10-$20k by the time our lease is up. I’ve been listening to the BiggerPockets podcast for a while and I now have hopes of owning and managing units myself. My question is for a first time home buyer, if we wanted to buy a multi unit property and live in one of the units is it still 3.5% down if it’s more than 2 units? I’ve heard before that for multi that it’s 3.5% if you plan on living in one of the units but 10% if you didn’t, I just wanted to make sure that applied to all multi family properties. Also, how deep into my savings goal should I wait before meeting with a realtor? Should I try to obtain the first property in my name solely just so she could get approved for loans later? How does that work. Sorry if this statement sounds all over the place I just have so many questions. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!