You can also double hack these if you have enough units and live in one unit and use one unit for your business, but of course that decreases your cash flow but increases your usability.You can also use an FHA loan to get a mixed-use property with only 3.5% down if the residential square footage if more than 50% of the total square footage.

Metro area will lead to there being fewer total units available, and higher occupancy in multifamily buildings.Population GrowthCoStar: Population Growth, DC Metro, United States (1/7/2025) Period Washington United States 2030 0.758% 0.498% 2029 0.758% 0.500% 2028 0.757% 0.507% 2027 0.765% 0.515% 2026 0.834% 0.532% 2025 0.966% 0.563% 2024 0.983% 0.569% 2023 0.707% 0.500% 2022 0.262% 0.423% 2021 0.004% 0.189% 2020 0.123% 0.285% 2019 0.946% 0.514% 2018 0.947% 0.562% 2017 1.058% 0.657% 2016 1.079% 0.762% 2015 1.125% 0.785% Washington D.C Proper surpassed 700,000 residents for the first time since 2019, showing the continued resurgence of the city since issues that arose for the city during the Pandemic (Source).

The total payment is about $2200 with PITI.

This has the obvious weakness of the unknown nature of future cap rates, but that's really the heart of your question here.Estimating future cap rate is part art, part science. 

I have calculated the late fee and it should be about a half percent total.

The dscr loan is requiring 25% down, and 13000 in closing for a total of 48.

So, coming in to the real estate field with no capital it seems like a good first step to get my feet wet and get a better understanding of real estate investing as a whole.Since I will be on the buying side of the deal, obviously negotiating will be a big part of my job.

If you have excellent credit and enough for a down payment/closing costs without totally wiping out your funds, I say go for it!

Multiply that by 10 total rental buildings, and you can see the premium jump significantly for your overall portfolio ($3k in this scenario). 

I do appreciate generating attention to the post for guys that might have some advice that isn't the obvious.