Rental Property - Downpayment vs Cashflow?

[Andrew Russell]

Hey guys!

I'm a newbie out of West Michigan, been listening to podcasts, watching webinars & reading the blogs and forums trying to learn as much as possible as I begin my investing career.

I'll introduce myself & my situation in the appropriate forum, but I do have a question for the buy & hold crowd-

What % of the purchase price do you target on for your downpayment when analyzing deals for cashflow? I know other metrics like ROI and CoCR need to be accounted for too, but obviously the higher the downpayment, the higher the cashflow. I see Brandon Turner uses 20%, which is the general minimum for bank financing, how about the rest of you?

Would you drop 25, 30 or even 40% to get a property cashflowing where you wanted it, in that $100-200 per unit range if the other metrics worked out?

I'll add, I'm still working on getting my first deal, I don't want to get stuck in "analysis paralysis" mode, but I also dont want to rush in and make any huge mistakes either. I'm sure I'll learn a ton from my first deal when it is said and done. I'm still very curious to know how much you guys flex on that downpayment.

Thanks!

Andrew