Meet with a local banker & schedule a time to talk with a mortgage broker, they'll give you at least a baseline of what kind of down payment options and rates are out there.After that, if you're still wanting to research more creative options, do some looking into seller financing (a very hot topic with good, and bad, advice out there), look into private lenders, and commercial financing options.If you're wanting to live in 1/4 of your quadplex, then conventional residential loans may in fact be your best option as you can purchase that with a fannie/freddy loan with very low down, and use up to 75% of the income from the property toward your own income. 

It allows you to take advantage of a low down payment loan.

Seems like a low risk strategy for you to start taking action on your dreams, which is the crucial ingredient towards reaching FI. 

Nicholas makes a great point—having strong ties to a market definitely helps, and picking a random low-cost market without a network can be tough.

Some of the materials we choose and asked him to pick up (such as flooring) he replaced with low quality materials, I assume to keep more of our money for himself. 

But also with low debt or free and clear property that they can easily access any time in the future with a cash out refinance.

You may be looking only for "low-hanging fruit" type deals, which are far & few between these days.Read copy & paste info below:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Real Estate Crash of 2008-2010 caused real estate prices to crash across the country - but didn't affect rent amounts.

When they do HML on OO, they want very low risk.  

Shoot me a DM if you want some help with finding a condo or house with a low rate that's on market.

These properties appeal to students and low-income renters, especially if traditional housing is limited.