401k loan for Down payment and contingency fund.

[Joel DeLuca]

I have a 401k with a previous employer that will allow me to take a loan against. The company is a large multinational that is unlikely to change plans suddenly or be bought out.

I would be looking for conventional financing. I would not expect the property to cash flow during the payback period of the 401k loan, (guessing 3 years of a 5 year loan). I would take out excess funds so that I would have an contingency fund of sort for short-term vacancy and maintanence.

Has anyone here used 401k loans to get seed money to get started in invested in SF? Any advice or cautions?