New multi-fam owner in Rochester, NY down payment question

[Kathryn Baker]

Hi all!! 

My husband and I just had an offer accepted for our first Multi-Family in Rochester, NY. It is a two unit (2 bed, 1 bath each side) we are planning to live in one side. The other is currently rented (lease ending in June). We have previously owned and flipped and single family home in Gates, that was sold in June (we are using the money from this sale for the down payment). 

My question is - Do we do a bigger down payment (30%) for a smaller mortgage payment/month? Or do we do 20% down and keep more in our saving for the next house? 

Also, if we do 30% down, do people usually refi to buy their next property? But then the con of refi is mortgage payments go up then not cash flowing as much? We (obviously) want to use as little of our own money as possible, so just wondering how people do this without draining their savings every time. We are just wanting to make sure that we are setting ourselves up in the best position to buy out next property (probably not for another year or so). 

Thanks so much everyone! 

[Craig S.]

With the interest rates still being incredibly low based on historical standards, I always recommend that people borrow as much as possible as long as you're going to use that extra cash on hand to invest elsewhere.  If you're looking to invest again within a year, any monthly savings you're going to have in the mortgage payment it's going to be negated by your closing costs when you refi to get that money back out of your current investment.