You are normally going to need 20% of the purchase price for a downpayment using conventional financing.It could be less if your seller is willing to do certain types of seller carry back financing or if you are set up as a general partnership and part of the money your partners are putting up goes to cover the down payment.You are going to need to have some money set aside to handle fixes and upgrades or for operational issues also set aside.How much time can I devote to running the community?

I want to use standard conventional loans and put down 20-25% deposit for each building.

I don't know that you wouldn't be better off buying quads getting 30 year money on them for a good interest rate.The benefit for larger properties 5 + really starts happening in the mid double digits in units for scale.If the broker is spending time with you then you should commit to that broker.

Can I use this money as a down payment for a conventional product/hard money skin in the game?

But be aware that to get a conventional loan after using hard money you may have to "season" the hard money loan for 6 months to a year to get that money back.  

Boise had had double digit appreciation for several years when we bought the place, but it went flat right after and as you know with a 30 year FHA loan we started out with less equity that it would take to finance the resale costs and we were paying less than $100 to principle every month. 

You need conventional financing or soft private money or the interest will kill you.

The seller is a mortgage loan officer who was concerned that I was only putting 5% down on a conventional residential loan.

My understanding is that you can't get conventional lending using an LLC, and you can try transferring title but then risk the bank calling the loan on the due-on-sale clause. 

After I get this rehabbed to rent out, I want to buy 2-4 more duplexes or with conventional financing; planning on living in each a year to get the financing.I'm a 55 year old female.