I'd like to acquire this on my own (without my husband), but am not sure if I'd qualify due to having one conventional loan already (perhaps this is my rookie mindset clouding creative thinking).

You can refinance in his name to conventional cash out IF he can qualify.

I'm looking into a 4-unit property but I already own a home on a conventional mortgage.

Conventionally with a friend who is a mortgage broker, and then privately with my grandparents for the down payment.

We want to use a conventional loan, but those have a 60 day occupancy clause, and CA requires 60 days' notice to vacate.

So you might be hard pressed to use income in either scenario with a Government/Conventional type of loan.

So you would recommend using a conventional loan? 

I've used this tactic before to create a digital paper trail and used the excuse, "so I don't forget" or something to that effect. 

okay so I'm ready to take the plunge into real estate investing. looking for multifamily properties in the south New jersey Market I have 80k to invest.initially I was just planning on doing a conventional loan with 25% down and 5% percent interest rate.so thats probably enough money for my first deal but then that has me thinking about whats next. how will I fund the next deal. so what I was thinking was if I could find a way to pay less then 25% down for each deal. anybody have any ideas on how to do this?

Out of curiosity, why not just doing a conventional purchase for at least part of the purchase price?