Twenty five percent down on a fourplex, or minimum down and keep the cash

Two ways to buy the same three or four unit building, and the argument between them rarely resolves because both sides are right about different risks. Putting more down means a smaller payment, more monthly cushion, and a building that carries itself even with a vacant unit. On a 500k fourplex, the gap between 5 percent down and 25 percent down is roughly a hundred thousand dollars of capital and several hundred dollars a month of payment. Terms available on owner-occupied versus investor purchases differ and change, so anything specific here should come from a lender in writing rather than a forum. Putting less down keeps that hundred thousand available. It covers water heaters, a tenant who stops paying, or the next building. The case for this side is that cash on hand keeps an owner solvent, while equity in a building that cannot be sold in a week does not. The counterargument worth taking seriously: a thin payment cushion on a building with four aging systems turns every capex event into a decision about affordability, and that is a common path to selling at the wrong time. Residential financing terms are the structural edge available at this size, and both strategies are simply different ways of using that edge in opposite directions.