For example, with the FHA loan you mentioned, the credit requirements scale downwards as the down payment amount scales upwards.

But the good ones that have sustainable business models - those companies that survive the test of time, have capital and operating reserves - and even have a "war chest" for mergers and acquisitions.

I would like something that can scale up as I won't stay at three units long.  

As a new investor, maybe trade equity for funds that allow you to scale.

Often for commercial scale projects they are salaried and the companies that hire them are bidding projects.Unless your GC can articulate very, very specifically what and how he / she is providing value, and you can have contractual protection to that effect, you're going to be on the receiving end of a bad deal there.Here's some thought experiments:What if your GC is slow? 

sep 2019 Update: It's not really worth it to buy in GR to rent on aribnb unless you have a lot of time and live in the area or if you don't care about scale and only want to rent 1 unit.

In the upcoming months my goal is to start with smaller multi family properties and to scale as fast as possible whether it is with myself or through partnering. 

I personally want to scale this thing and am not good at talking to tenants.

If not, I wouldn't recommend getting into a project of that size/scale as your first go.

I would look to scale your expertise up to larger MF.