I have a whole post about it.https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/61/topics/364937-reducing-flood-insurance-costs?

I've done a few deals with seller financing on commercial loans to effectively reduce the downpayment to less than 20%, so shop around with local banks in that area.  

So my advice - aggressively save $, once you have 20% for a duplex, find a good deal where you can add value that will have a stable occupancy (by a university, public transportation, etc.)Just my 2 cents.

Has anyone negotiated a pre-forclosure deal where you were able to get the homeowner and the lienholder to agree to allow you to assume the homeowners mortgage at a significantly reduced rate? 

Your passive income (i.e. cash flow) shouldn't be affected if the market takes a downturn unless the rental market around your properties also takes a downturn & you're forced to reduce rents to compete with others.  

I don't know if this can be done in larger cities like Toronto and Edmonton, but tax rolls are public records.

I was thinking something similar recently Brendan... some public sector and even large private sector organizations are less and less a meritocracy...it can be hard to even know what the metrics are in some cases.

Does converting or reducing those now make sense?  

In other words you might have a 30 year amortization and you might have a balloon payment due in 17, 18, 19 years as the principal is reduced. 

This is all public info - you s/b able to visit the tax appraisal district site for the address the property is in, and look up each component (city, county, ISD, hospitals, etc.) of the tax bill.