@Mike Pauze if you are looking for a renovation style loan, search here for Alex Bekeza...he works with investors and is active on BPIt's important to define the loan product up front...some conventional lenders may not have the product you are after.

It's also a good market if you're using conventional financing and need to put 25% down on purchases because your capital can stretch due to low (relatively speaking) purchase prices.

The goal is to increase the value enough that I can refinance into a conventional loan next year and do this again with another FHA loan in a year or two.

How big of a pain is the FHA loan process in terms of inspections, things you have to fix prior to closing, etc. vs a conventional loan? 

conventional 20% down ~ I lived in it for a few years Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

If you want to minimize mortgage insurance, you can do a 15% down payment conventional loan on a 2 unit, at $1M purchase, that would be your $150,000. 

If you get a property that just needs some cosmetic upgrades, I’d get a traditional conventional loan and take advantage of the low down payment/rate.

Luckily, so far everyone I've talked with at City of Portland has been gracious with me being an amateur asking questions and instead of a conventional route for the site plan / architectural drawings I'm at least starting out with outsourcing it to an architect in Pakistan (and then adapting the lumia drawings myself).

I am looking at creating a space that helps define the digital opportunities that exist in the blockchain space.    

conventional 30year fixed