@Brian DeLormeHere is the definition of "first-time home buyer":You qualify as a first-time home buyer so long as you had no ownership interest in a main home any time within two-years before the date you acquire your new home.

Are they very particular about how you acquire the down payment? 

It really depends on what your long term goals are, but if you are hoping to acquire and build your portfolio, my opinion is, CASH IS KING!

I saved up 8k and when my taxes come in I should have about 16k. I’m looking to buy a 3-4 family home in Dutchess county NY, or Newburgh NY. I want to make investing in real estate a business and my question is where ...

Leave the markets to the locals or those able to acquire 100+ units.OOS already has challenges.

The repayment terms for a 401k participant loan are equal monthly/quarterly payments of principal and interest (typically prime plus 1%) over a 5 year term (longer if used to acquire your principal residence).Please note that if you take a full $50,000 and then pay back the loan, you can't take another $50,000 until 12 months after the first loan was fully paid back.Per the loan offset rules that went into effect with the 2018 Tax and Job Act: if you leave your job and the loan is current at the time you leave your job but then the loan goes into default because you left your job, you will have until your tax return deadline (including any timely filed extension) to make the loan current by depositing the outstanding balance into an IRA (and thereby avoid the taxes and penalties that would otherwise apply).Please keep in mind the multiple loan rules:Under those rules, the sum of the balances of a participant's outstanding 401k loans under a single 401k plan (using the highest outstanding balance of each loan over the last 12 months) can't exceed 50% or $50,000 whichever is less.

They can be paid back as well, so if use to acquire a foreclosed property and sell for profit or turn into a rental and refinance the property, the line of credit can be paid back to 0, hence no payment until you use the funds again.Cash out refinance - You pay on these funds via mortgage payment every month.

I also help them acquire them; usually I'm their eyes and ears.

For example, if the seller has only owned the property a very short time and acquired it through a messy process such as a tax sale then I might be concerned that there are issues that should be searched out, and taken care of.

Check out the cost to remediate mold in the local area.