Most hard money lenders require 10-20% down payment of the purchase price or total project cost.Holding Costs During Rehab: Yes, you'll need to cover carrying costs, including hard money interest, utilities, taxes, and insurance.

The deduction is optimized as values increase and can potentially offset the entire net investment (including down payment) for high wage earners.

Let your criteria do the filtering for you.Regarding retention and renewals, the only time I have asked people to leave is when they have had rent payment issues and/or damaged the property. 

However, finding properties that would cash flow with a 20-25% down payment on 400k property has been challenging.

This is the equivalent of a car salesman pitching the "monthly payment" of a car instead of the actual price of the car.

These groups are goldmines for finding mentors, reliable vendors, and other investors to learn from.Property ManagementChoosing the right property management company can make or break your experience.

2) Are you pre-approved and have the down payment in your bank account?

You should have 25% down payment + closing costs, + an oh Sh*t fund on top of that. 

Have you considered tapping into your existing rental equity for the down payment?

There are down payment programs for duplexes, i have not searched or tried to do a 3-4 unit property.