Investing in real estate with no (and low) money down - questions

[Daniel Wood]

Hi, I am new to the BiggerPockets platform (both forum and podcasts) and recently took an interest in real estate investment. A quick background. I am a 24-year-old college graduate. I majored in Construction Management Engineering Technology and currently work as a project manager on Long Island, NY. I recently purchased the above mentioned book written by Brandon Turner and throughout each chapter I highlight key points and jot down questions, which I will be posting here for feedback. A few questions I'd like to discuss in this thread are:

1. Is a mortgage payment with MIP (when utilizing an FHA Loan for an owner-occupied investment) less than if I were to acquire my first property the typical way. Typical way being 20% down with a typical loan/mortgage (ie. mortgage payment with no MIP).

2. When utilizing an FHA loan, can I elect to put more than 3.5% down to lower my monthly mortgage payments?

3. If I elect to use a 203K FHA Loan, and a contractor reveals unforeseen conditions during his renovation, will the 203K be adjusted to cover this? If not, what is some typical language put in contracts with contractors to shift that risk onto them? Example: "owner is not responsbile for neglegent detection of existing conditions during walk-through".

4. Would you recommend utilizing a 203K loan to flip houses (buy, reno, sell) or use them just to buy, renovate, rent (and potentially refinance or hold for equity)?

Not all of these need to be answered and I appreciate any feedback.

- Dan W.