I plotted the range of down payment vs CoC and it's pretty obvious, the less you put down the better your CoC is. 

Also that will give me a lower payment which will allow me to have bigger profit from rent.

Also, do you have any idea what you'd like to do in terms of the method of investing? 

With a $200k HELOC, I could flip one property or buy 3, using it for down payments and leveraging loans.

Some recommend the STACK method also.

But if it’s money out of pocket for down payment (primary vs investment) there are definitely ways around that.

With multifamily house hacking, you live in one unit and rent out the remaining units to tenants.Why Multifamily House Hacking WorksHere’s why house hacking with a multifamily property is such a powerful strategy:Rental Income Pays Your MortgageWhen you rent out multiple units, the rental income from your tenants can cover a significant portion—if not all—of your mortgage payment.

However the property has a freeway behind it and hence no rear neighbors /more privacy.You’re going to see low or negative returns with minimum down payments in that area unless you’re going BIG as in much larger homes and much heftier budgets for design/amenities.There’s great cashflow on the Clearwater/Largo/Seminole/StPete side - you’re looking at 2 high cashflow buckets that I call Tier 1 and Tier 2. 

My thought is is use the Rent Ready feature of reporting his payment history to the credit bureau so it can work in his favor as a trade line, but I'm wondering if this is an unnecessary added step since he can already pull transactions on his bank side. 

Also it meets the 50% rule. 30 year mortgage at 7% is a payment of approx 323. 925 rent - 462 (operating expenses)= 462; 462 - 323 (debt service)= 139 cashflow.