If you're staying local, I would say either rent to one tenant / family, self manage, or establish a great relationship with one of the renters that can take over landlord duties and you can cut their rent down $100 / mo or so. 

So straight to the question!

I think people will cut back on going to the urban areas and go to less densely populated areas if things get significantly worse.

Do I apply for financing with lenders for conventional and see if I can qualify (another hard ding on my credit) or do I go straight to Hard money lending/ seller financing. 

I am trying to get educated on this because I cannot get a straight answer from my lender and closing date is in three weeks.

We are straight up long term buy and hold multi-family.

Been asking around and not getting a straight answer so any help here would be much appreciated!

@Edward DePalmaSection 8 is great but they will cut rents in a downturn also.

What you will get from me is a straight-forward approach.

(15% down, 2.875% 30 yr fixed, MIP $232/mo, $17k funds to close, $2300/mo payments)2: ARM: I'm nervous to have a rate that may be significantly higher in 5 years that will cut into my bottom line and I'd like to take advantage of the low rates now.