You'll pull mortgage records for the last X amount of days, and look for regular people's names versus say Wells Fargo. 

Having a regular job provides a ton of benefits unless you just totally hate it.

Your initial cash outlay will be identical since you're putting 25% down - hence your cash on cash return will look much better with the 30 year mortgage.If your goal is to maximize immediate cash flow there are several local banks that will offer a 24 month IO period AND 25 year am (fixed 5 yrs).If you're looking for a stable long term product - a conventional mortgage may be the best play.

I understand this situation would apply only to people who can't deduct passive activity losses against their regular income, but I have to imagine that's a very large group on Bigger Pockets.

Many investors plan on refinancing on a somewhat regular schedule, based on the performance of the property, resetting the 20 or 25 year amortization period every time.

PMI companies all come in with identical pricing for >90% of scenarios, no matter how hard you shop it, barring certain wholesale pricing deals that some institutions have, and lender incompetence (I've won business because someone else was overcharging for PMI due to data entry error... no one thinks to shop by PMI rate, so many do not double check their work).

I'd like to thank everyone who regularly contributes to these forums.

I would be much more focused on getting a really solid 4 unit with little or no deferred maintenance in an area where you can get great tenants and maybe increase the rents regularly than I would on whether it generates a little positive cash flow with only 3 units rented.How much have you spent in rent while searching for the perfect deal?

,Since W2 employees get taxed BEFORE they get their money, you're kind of up a tree on this one.You'd do better to find a way to pay yourself from your deals thru an S-Corp so you can control how much of it is actually salary (earned income) versus dividend (regular income).

I will be attending the Investor Underground meetup on a regular basis so if you're also a regular, please let me know so we can meet in person.Feel free to message me.