An Investment Property to Start RE Journey?

[Emil Pinlac]

Hi Everyone - I would love to get some advice and insight from the community with regard to my RE strategy below: 

The General Plan: 

It is my plan to look for small, multi-family properties in the Northern California/Sacramento area, with the intent to either:

 a) Renovate/Rehab the units in order to add value to the property and be able to rent it out for a higher monthly income (kind of like a BRRR?)

or

b) Buy & Hold a multi-family property that already cash flows with existing long-term tenants and use the cashflow to save for future rehab/renovation projects on the property.

Financing Strategy: 

I would fund this, by doing a 5% down conventional loan (is this possible in current conditions?) I do have a high credit score above 790, and my Debt-to-Income ratio is also considerably low (6%), but I have heard that Banks nowadays are asking for at least 15-20% of a downpayment on properties. Can anyone substantiate this for me, especially in the CA/Sacramento market? 

Other Things/Reasoning for this Strategy:

Initially, it was my thought to purchase a multifamily, and house-hack by living in one unit while renting out the other - but I realized that I could make so much more in cash flow if I had just rented out both units, and continued renting out of the place I live in now - where I effectively pay less than $200 a month for my own room. 

Final Questions:
Do you guys think this is a good blueprint for how I should begin my Real Estate journey? ASSUMING I can get the 5% down on a conventional loan, and ASSUMING I can get at least $200-$300 of cash flow per month on a small multi-family? Is this strategy viable, or am I missing some key metrics / making some very bad assumptions? 

I would love everyone's thoughts. Thank you so much for the existence of this community and for BiggerPockets at large!!