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.

I simply take a picture, text it to the tenant and they add the payment to their next month’s rent payment.

Mortgage payment with 25% down is $1,011. 

They will normally have some pre-payment penalties in the first couple of years but if you are keeping long terms that's not an issue. 

The investors that have had these payments suspended have set-up a new Facebook page.

Even if you fail the first time (pretty much every inspection I've had the person finds something to flag) they don't cut off payment until they have come back out a second time.