4 units – owner occupy one of the units for best financing

2-4 units are a sweet spot for the small-time RE investor

get the leverage of multiple units with owner-occ financing

5th unit causes a jump into ‘commercial’ category where reqd downpayment jumps to 35% neighborhood and interest rate not as good as owner-occ – ie, stay with 4 units or less

just remember, there is no free lunch, owning RE is a pain in the ass regardless of the type and dealing with tenants is not much fun [I can’t stand being lied to and tenants seem to do that as a matter of habit when dealing with the landlord]