So the larger REI group in the area to my knowledge is named Renatus, or some variation of the word.

We can speculate all day long, but the reality is the lenders will have many different variations of each type of loan that may make them fit your exact needs.

Even though @Scott Trench improved the post with more levels of variation and clarity (and taking age into account), now we can find other areas left out: such as cost of living

At 100% financing (or some variation on that) your cash-flow is much less.  2.)

Then you are off to the races you want to run.When I read a variation on the "hate my job and I want passive income" I always think...so what?

(Slight variation of the scheme - vacation renter pays rent, but falls under L.A. rent control laws.)

RE has large degrees in variation around norms not only in asset type and class, but also location, thus making sweeping generalities at best useless and at worse harmful. 

The 5-6 room SFR still would be valued using comps as a regular SFR and financed as a typical SFR property though.I'd say about 10-15% of buy and hold investors do this or a variation of it.1 example would be one investor I know buys SFR's with 5-6+ rooms and splits the rooms for international students.Another example is a investor/contractor that builds 10 room rehab homes. 

I'm a firm believer that - within the "reasonable parameters" - there is no wrong or right, just variations of things of which some will suit person A and other(s) will suit person B.As a very general approach I would say that if you plan on building up a cash-flow generating "empire" you probably want to leverage as much as reasonably possible so as to rather quickly increase the numbers of units you own.

I don't know if it is the best choice, but it is the rationnal.One problem is the large variation of the $ to Euro exchange rate, but there is a diversification advantage and this effect should be less important on the long termDue to the cost of having one LCC per house, I think I will stay as it is for now and may reconsider the situation later on if I pursue my investments.This leads me to another question.