I have a 4 family in Troy, my first baby.

My wife and I were looking to buy a house until the baby showed up in January.

We've come to the conclusion that anyone who winds up in a shelter, is there because they are essentially impossible to house, so we only take straight Sec 8 at this point, and will not touch anyone who is coming out of a shelter.Expect that the woman will always bring in a "baby daddy". 

Because of that, while they're at work paying for their house and their junk, you and your wife can be in your living room with your baby, writing BP forum posts at 3:10pm on a Wednesday, because neither of you need a 9-5 job anymore since you have a multi-million dollar portfolio working for you (true story, its our story) .To answer your down payment question, there are two reasons NOT to put 20% down on a property - you can't afford it, or you can but want to use more leverage to invest in more properties.

@Susan Herschell you'll learn pretty soon that the transparency is not to your benefit.When one or two Tenants will ask you to wave late fees when "their car got broken", "the baby get sick", the bank account got broken into", "they change the job and will get back on track soon" - you will help them.But eventually you'll understand that these reasons are endless and you run a business, not a charity.The lease states parties as "Landlord" and "Tenant(s)", I sign the lease on behave of the Landlord as a property manager for the XXX, LLC.They contact me, they might guess now and then that I'm the property owner but I don't disappoint them with the truth.

And since I didn’t share mine here goes:1) work out 250 days of the year. 2) begin to create daily REI videos I.e YouTube channel 3) Create semi weekly REI podcast 4) Help do 85 in office transactions.5) Help REI coaching clients do an additional 50 transactions. 6) Give 25,000$ to my alma matters for donations. 7) Take two memorable vacations with my wife and newborn. 8) Keep a weekly journal to give to my son 9) Provide substaial and beneficial support to those who ask through service. 10) To hold up to my expectations of doing business as person of faith, spirituality, intergrity, and moral character. 

Where Baby Boomers and Gen X generations went wrong is we bought houses, cars and had kids in our 20's which meant we increased our expenses by a lot making financial freedom much harder and thus we had to stay in the Rat Race longer.

Being free and clear, I can sleep like a baby at night compared to being leverage.

(Knit baby blankets and sell them online...whatever.)

Spend it baby!