When determining a buy down, most investors do what you already did; they determine how long to recoup the extra money down.If it's less than 36 months and the investment is a long term play, that's good.

@William ArringtonIf the first lender determined that your DTI would be too high since you don't yet have income for the new property, you could go the DSCR route.

@Gloria Lucia let's look at a likely scenario that you might face out there to determine the best route.  

These loans are typically more expensive.Many PML and HML will look at each situation individually to determine what qualifies. 

I think the dynamics of the labor market will help determine how much interest rates are hiked in the coming few years.

Trulia proves to be quite helpful in determining high crime areas in your city; so that you may avoid investing in such areas.However, the internet has its limitation.

It took me a moment to determine ALL the bulbs had been stolen.When I looked for signs of a break-in I found a glass pane on the front door had been removed (not broken) someone reached into unlock, then they carefully set the glass pane asideThat is all.  

Calculate the annual income of one unit and determine if you think it's a good deal.

Hey Tyler, Airdna is a great resource to get you started on determining which markets you want to target. 

And we too would have a hard time asking for a $500 rent increase as we would be hard-pressed to determine how anyone could afford such an increase.