They couldn't finance it and we couldn't carry so they were pissed at us.

An LOI carrys no legal weight.

Obviously you want to bid on First Mg foreclosures.I don’t know if you can have “unrecorded” liens (code violations, utilities, etc) there, or not.Do hoa debts carry over to you there?

Multifamily is definitely the way to go but you need to educate yourself on the space.Single family is a much slower way to scale and carries a lot of risk as one bad tenant or capital expense can wipe out the cashflow and put you in the red fast.Commercial and multifamily will typically require 30%-35% down depending on the lender and the property.

If so, get the owner to carry the 30k difference in a note, if you are still comfortable paying 150K.

I paid the seller 15k cash, took over her 1st mortgage of 70k subject to, and she is carrying a 2nd mortgage for 15k at 0% with $200 payments until paid in full.

The person that wrote it is a card-carrying member of the AA; Accidental Appreciation Club.

Seems to me a decent option for an owner carry property, with the ability to share some of the risk between both parties.  

Understand both roles and if you feel your role is more intensive or carries more risk then of course you have the right to negotiate for a higher percentage.

I may be paying a little more than I generally would on a rental house but if they're carrying the loan for me (with zero down as well) then I'm avoiding the hassle of the bank initially.