Investing 20-25 percent of your own money provides some equity which helps cushion the leverage (in addition to any improvements you make to force appreciation) and it eliminates the need to pay private mortgage insurance.

I'd like to get an FHA loan to do a cash-out refi and use the money for home improvements, some minor debt pay down (mostly to raise credit scores) a cushion for starting my real estate career, and ultimately buy a new house and convert the current one to a rental.

in fact, they want there to be as much equity left in the property as possible....if they have to foreclose on you later this added equity acts as something of a cushion for them. 

Make sure you always leave enough of a cash cushion so that you can make your payments for months, maybe even a year, if something goes wrong.

So,if you are going to use business credit cards I highly suggest you make sure you have enough cushion just in case.

But since this would be my very first property, and I'm not exactly in a position to make a mistake, and I want to give myself as much cushion as possible, I would definitely want to maximize my profits on whatever property becomes my first deal.

Make sure you add enough of a cushion into the repair estimate so that you will be covered if something unplanned occurs and you can give the end buyer a financial incentive to purchase from you.

I would rather put less down on the property and have a cushion in the bank.  

Make sure you have a cushion of money for big repairs, you need to make sure you are covered if something big happens at one of your properties.

Most Flippers will want more of a cushion than an ARV of only $10k more than they have to put into it - so if you were to NOT buy it, the next highest Offer might be significantly lower!