So how this plays in a real life qualifying example is as follows....If the Fourplex is 800,000 for example sake, the borrower would only need to bring in sufficient income to qualify for the remainder of the 570,000 from their own sources (job, self employ, other rental cashflow, airbnb, 2nd job, interest note income, K1's from other businesses, etc)

Where you look south to Providence and Rhode Island and see properties that still sometimes meet the various investing rules of thumb, here in RI we often look north and wonder why there is "brain drain" and most of the good jobs and employees leave the state for better opportunities in the greater Boston area, where there is actual economic activity and the tax burden (while not amazing) is at least not quite so bad.And in general, when I look at demographics, apart from a few cities like Boston and New York (and even including them), I honestly don't see a lot of people moving to the Northeast, versus moving away from it, for greener pastures in terms of employment, tax burden and cost of living in other parts of the country.So it's hard to "know what you don't know" and easy these days to live in a "filter bubble".

Take the time to learn about different areas and what type of strategy you want to employ.

However, the commute is only about 25 - 30 minutes to research park or Redstone Arsenal (The main centers of employment).

.- daily calculation of interest vs using the average daily balance method- checking sweep account provided with the loan that applies all funds to principal first then pays interest later which great limits the expense of interest especially for those are are self employed or investors who get lots of deposits through out the month.- access to draw funds for all 30 years of term vs only the first 10 years - uses Fannie Mae guidelines so planning for this product is more predictable since the guidelines are public and widely used vs individual bank helps guidelines which may vary drastically from bank to bankThe cons are:- variable interest rate however this also variable with helocs andbaio is on the 1M libor index while most helocs are tied to prime index which is more volatile over timeOther than the variable rate feature it does not have many disadvantages.

Some tips would be:-save up down payment money-know your credit score and debit to income ratio-you will need 2 years of tax returns -you will need 2 months of bank statements-you will need to show 2 years of continuous employment in the same field -you will need a realtor who has experience or specializes in working with first time home buyers Hope that helps!

Only one did once,  there was 4 months left,  tenant's  new employer paid it.  

My plan sounds similar to how you started - I plan to use my cash for the first 1-3 deals but then begin to employ hard and/or private money to scale (and will factor in the costs and reserves).  

Nothing in my strategy is not regularly employed by buyers.Unfortunately for me, the appraisal came in slightly above value, which seemed odd, and when I investigated closely, of the 7 comps used, there was one outlier that greatly skewed the value.

They had planned to rent until securing jobs but found landlords and property managers were unwilling to work with them because they had interviews lined up, but weren't employed yet.