Mortgage rates and PMLs are 8-12% plus points right now so the deal has to be a low enough entry. 

The interest rate is not special nor is the 20% down (80% LTV).  

Heck, you should mortgage your home to the hilt, and borrow every single dollar you can at 6-7% and crush it on the arbitrage.

My original plan was to find a 4 plex in california buy using fha loan, move out after the first year and generate cash flow and appreciation, but after looking at properties it became clear to me that’s not possible with todays market and interest rates.

I financed this property using down payment funds from 403B and a local commercial bank. 15% down from personal funds. 85% down from community commercial bank. 3yr balloon, 20yr amortization, 7% interest rate.

My best guess is their failure rate is more than 98%.The truth is not as “convenient”.

I expressed my objection to the rate.

- very low remaining mortgage balance!!

Depending on the lender (bank or alt. lender) you have to look at origination fees....points, doc prep, interest rate, frequency draws are allowed/min. draw amount allowed per request, interest payments vs. interest reserve & whether interest reserve is capitalized to fully understand the true cash requirements.

I believe that the technically correct answer is that they all moved from California to Texas and Florida, whereupon they realized that it gets extremely hot and humid in those places, has extremely variable weather, and large insects, and are now leaving Texas and Florida.