“What’s the lowest down payment you can make to buy a rental property?”
Answer:
Theoretically, you could buy a property that the owner finances and put zero down. But the odds of that happening are not much higher than that down payment.
Fannie Mae sells some of their foreclosures for just 10% down to investors via their “HomePath” financing. But they strongly prefer to sell to homeowners and have only a fraction of the residential San Diego real estate that’s available for sale. It’s possible, but don’t plan on it.
For the rest, to certain “confirming limits” (see below), you’re looking at a minimum of:
– 20% down for a house or condo
– 25% for 2-4 units, duplex, triplex, or fourplex.
– Add 5% to these numbers if you own more than 4 financed properties.
The down payment jumps to 35% for loans over these conforming limits:
– 1-unit properties: $417,000
– 2-unit properties: $533,850
– 3-unit properties: $645,300
– 4-unit properties: $801,950
