This just means that 75% of the rents of all units (all 3 or all 4 of the units) must be equal to or greater than your entire monthly payment to ensure FHA will be sufficient should anything happen to your ability to pay for this property (if they take it back the property as a foreclosure/REO).In more expensive west or east coast markets it will be hard to make the FHA SS rule right now given that the rates are in the 6-7% range so I would recommend targeting 1-2 unit FHA properties. 

Hello, my name is Joshua Tate; I am currently a college student, going into my senior year at Oral Roberts University, studying business marketing with a concentration in economics.

The Brrrr strategy would be a better bet, but you'd need to find a property where it would work, that way you get most or all of your money back when the process is completed and can use that same cash for another property right away.

I'm willing to partner in a deal with them by providing some or all of the rehab money (just depends how big of a rehab).  

As Courtney mentioned, a problem at a 4plex can potentially affect multiple units (or all of the units), whereas a problem at one house will generally be contained to that one house....along those lines: if a problem occurs at a 4plex (like the electric going out, or a fire), it could affect all of your tenants, but a problem at a house only affects the tenants in that house...However, when you're doing things like tenant viewings, it is easier to only be driving to a single 4plex compared to driving around to four different houses (esp. if those houses are far apart).  ...also, the 4plex might only have one sewer main, one electrical main line, fewer windows/doors, and fewer things to break in general than four separate houses, which could result in lower operating costs...There are a lot of "double edged swords", too; for instance--it may be easier and cheaper to replace a roof on a single 4plex than on four separate houses.

I had made an oral offer on a house before Covid, it was a junky old house, but I knew I could get it cash flowing. 

That may be a part of it but doesn't include placing tenants or all the repair cost increases.

The challenge is finding a property with a good value add that will allow you to extract much or all of your investment in less than a year. 

If you lose any or all of your deposit (EMD), would the lender cover that?   

From reading the complaints, plaintiffs allege that Clayton made oral/express contracts and presented marketing materials that promised his company would rehab the properties as included in the sale price but the properties were never rehabbed.