I have a good savings for a 37 year old but i live with my wife in an apartment and don't own a home .

Russ when people ask me about this side of the real estate many times I relate your personal story.. as I found it quite interesting.and that like with most business's that have the opportunity to make significant income you actually need significant up front capital to launch and have savings to live on while you prime the deal pipe line..   

That would increase your savings rate! 

But instead I'm debating on doing only a 20% down, which will be a significant increase to my current mortgage on the smaller house, and use a good chunck of the 20%, to either pay off student loans ($65k, saving about $700/mo in payments that can be used to offset mortgage), or using it to put down on rentals (multifamily). 

Identify who the cash buyers are and understand their criteria of what they look for, learn how to run numbers on a property as if you were a flipper yourself because that is the skill expected of you by cash buyers to save them time and that is the value you bring to others.

No actual tax saving. 

If you have the ability to live 6 months & 1 day in NV and avoid that, your realized earnings & savings may be enormous if you have the ability to tele-commute with any day job.

@Randy D Visser, you can save time by hiring an independent process server for "nail and mail" service you can get the same day you file your lawsuit. 

Am I correct in assuming that another requirement is to have a certain amount of cash reserves saved up to cover any unexpected expenses?

Once you know that number you can make a lower offer and see if you can save money.