If the property is on a crawl, mitigation can be done, which will reduce your flood insurance. 

But most folks feel comfortable with anything more than a year unless there are mitigating circumstances that could demonstrate that your original intent was to hold.

I'm looking at small multi-family for house hacking but have the following issues with risk and financing.1. conventional lenders require 10+% down on multi-family2. buying the property in my name (to get cheaper financing) and then transferring to LLC (to mitigate landlording risk) isn't possible from the lenders I've talked to (due on sale clauses can be triggered)3.

Purchase price: $250,000 Cash invested: $115,000 Rental must be refurbed after last tenant, pool /hottub/ yard issueLeak from water heater created major damage, but didn't compare to tenant issuesMaking decision on selling/renting again to mitigate the costs of repair What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

This is where getting into the right deal, with the right syndicator, can help to mitigate risk at the outset -- picking the right asset class.

I ask only from a liability stand point, obviously you would like to mitigate any slip and fall risks as much as possible.

Trying to mitigate against common pitfalls but I think a good lease should do it.

If the odor is not properly mitigated that will cause ongoing problems.

@Kenneth Rose the local “boots on the ground” will make or break your investment if it’s out of state.My first rental is OOS, and if the realtor that sold it to me (that also does some property management too) wasn’t an honest, Hard working person, I would have had a disaster on my hands and been lucky to sell for what I paid for.Not trying to dissuade you, as I did it, got lucky, and it’s worked out, but it adds risk, when as a new investor, it’s hardest to identify and mitigate risks.

That is how you mitigate risk in this business.