MFH - Down payment & Second Mortgage

[Ian Tudor]

Hello - I have been spoken to a mortgage broker recently about purchasing a SFH or MFH. It will be owner occupied for at least a year, if not longer. However, he said that lending institutions require at least 20% down for duplexes and 25% down for triplexs and quadplexs.

Is this a common practice even though I will be living in the property?

This leads me to my second question. If this is the standard, I want to be able to lower this requirement by finding other financing elsewhere. What I mean by that is that I was curious about the second mortgage market nowadays.

For a first time home buyer, would a second mortgage even be an option?

I'm attempting to explore all options before I commit to anything.

Best,

Ian