And don’t sleep on local banks or credit unions—they sometimes offer flexible portfolio loans that could work for a deal like this.Since your wife qualifies as a first-time homebuyer, check out any state-specific programs or HUD options for down payment assistance.

And if someone tries it, without paying for classes or programs, they can either net a deal or loose X number of hours of their time trying it.

The 25% has to be your funds.Now, there are non conventional options that would be a bit more flexible but even most of those programs will require at least 20% down with no second mortgages filed on the property. 

The LP got it from a friend who is in some kind of real estate mentoring program.

Some programs will do the full LTV that a long term rental would have and some lenders will reduce the LTV by 5%.

By doing this we qualified for a larger mortgage because we could use the rent from the other tenant to qualify and there are better lending programs when it’s “owner occupied”.  

Some rehab lenders have favorable refinancing programs to convert the rehab loan to permanent 30 year financing.

Always ask tenants to check to make sure it is locked.Another disadvantage is that you have to change the batteries regularly.Another disadvantage is you have to spend quite some time programming the locks and tracking the code3.

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It will depend on the bank and their threshold / programs they are participating in.