However, understanding their requirements—such as down payment percentages, reserve requirements, and loan-to-value ratios—is key to getting approved.One of the biggest advantages of working with portfolio lenders is their ability to fund deals that traditional banks might pass on.

.- My Resources / Constraints: I'm in a by no means unique, but perhaps less common situation for those getting started; I'm a somewhat senior software engineer at a tech megacorp and should be able to save a couple of down payments per year for lower priced houses (100-200 in my area), or perhaps one medium priced house (300-500).

They typically have multiple origination points (meaning very high closing costs) very high rates (compared to conventional but also compared to 6 month or longer waiting period DSCR products) and almost always have VERY long pre-payment periods up to 5 years.

I mention this as I have seen some people want to sue companies because they were a sponsored affiliate on a website…Regarding the original post- expect 10-12% (I think latest I saw is avg is 11.5%) rate plus atleast one point for a 12 month loan.Bigger companies may take longer for approval and can be more flexible usually in down payment amounts.

Do you mean a down payment on a property??

I can’t say I came up with the idea, I saw a landlord with more units than I have post that they offered the holiday discount, bug only to their tenants who had made all their rent payments on time and in full over the course of the year.

Only one of these methods involves "saving" money, and most BP users don't pay enough attention to it. 

If you're looking for a great way to find off-market properties with less competition is by using a method called Driving for Dollars.

After about a month of no response on FF I switched my method to LTR.

@Ramada Evans- 1) if buying as a rental and  financing it - your down payment will need to be a min of  15% of the  purchase price   ( so thats either  30,750 at 205K price or 32,850 at the 219K price ...so  not much of a down payment  difference   2) if it appears that there isnt much competition  or interest in theproperty - the lower price might be OK   3)  you might also consider   asking the seller for a seller  credit you can use towards some of your loan costs   4) get pre approved  if you arent already pre approved