I also noticed a lack of inventory when looking for 4plexes.

Once the property is completed, your conventional lender comes to refinance the loan.

The problem with Redding is that there are no rentals to speak of, as it was already an extremely tight market, and many of those that may come on the market will be taken from inventory for sale, and will be newly added to the rent rolls, with no rental history.

Is it possible to get a conventional loan with as low as 1-3.5% down?

https://www.har.com/content/newsroom/Houston Real Estate Highlights in July: Single-family home sales rose 9.1 percent year-over-year, with 8,108 units sold;Days on Market (DOM) for single-family homes remained unchanged at 48 days;Total property sales increased 8.5 percent, with 9,559 units sold;Total dollar volume jumped 11.4 percent to nearly $2.8 billion;The single-family home median price rose 5.9 percent to $243,500, reaching a July high;The single-family home average price also achieved a July record, rising 2.4 percent to $305,910;Single-family homes months of inventory was at a 4.2-months supply, down fractionally from 4.3 months last July, but nonetheless at the highest level since August 2017;Townhome/condominium sales rose 6.1 percent, with the average price up 6.9 percent to $215,110 and the median price up 9.3 percent to $165,000;Leases of single-family homes fell 1.9 percent with the average rent up 5.6 percent to $1,916;Volume of townhome/condominium leases dropped 6.6 percent with the average rent up 7.7 percent to $1,666.

What the tight inventory has done though is make it very difficult to purchase anything- either as an investor or owner occupied.So everyone thinks- when will it end? 

@Matthew Zachman from Houston, TexasCash is king, Conventional is welcomed, all others well.

If one of your other properties is an FHA, then consider refinancing with a conventional loan.

I am a new buy and hold investor in northern Indiana. 2 months ago I purchased my first property - a duplex, and I used a conventional loan with 20% down.

Petitioner's (taxpayer’s) uncontroverted testimony was that B'Mae's undertook the advertising, guest registration, housekeeping, and inventory replenishment in exchange for a fee equal to 40 percent of the proceeds of any rentals.