Along with the refi after a year or two, I would save up the cash flow to buy another property or contribute to the down payment to get to 78% LTV as fast as possible to avoid PMI and to be able to qualify for a regular loan.Based on everything I know, this plan seems to be the most efficient way to acquire as many units as possible in the shortest amount of time, but again I am fairly new and don't know all the possible options.

I am the head of a single-income household of 4, and after accidentally discovering BiggerPockets and Robert Kiyosaki, I've decided to move my family into my in-law's place (from Garfield to Bergenfield) in order to stop paying rent and begin saving serious cash for investing in the near future.I would like to start off with a duplex/triplex/fourplex as primary residence while collecting decent cashflow.

After approximately 8 months with both of us working full time and with the funds from our house, we had enough saved up to finally close on 2 properties in downtown Denver (we actually built these on foreclosed land, probably more suitable for another post).

I recommend if your exchange is remotely within those dates, to go ahead and get them on the calendar with advance reminders set up because we all know that anything can happen that could delay a closing and with accountants now filing online, mistakes are easier to make.  

There is no saving this guy.

As others said, you probably have to save up a little before doing a deal to get that down payment.Brian

@John McAuleyDmitriy is correct, there is no means for your retirement plan to be a lender on a property that you own personally.With a self-directed IRA or 401k, it is not you investing in real estate with access to that tax-sheltered retirement savings, but rather the plan investing in real estate.  

This will allow you to hold on to your savings for making your first non-owner occupied purchase. 

After all, I have nothing better to do while I save my $$$ for the first purchase.I apologize in advance for the formatting on this.

Hey everyone, I'm new to the forum and wanted to take a moment to introduce myself.I run a small analytics consulting business in Boston, and develop data science courses for several online education platforms.I'm interested in real estate investing as a means of diversifying my portfolio and providing additional streams of passive income.