Novice REI Starting Out in Buffalo

[Joel Gellis]

Hello BiggerPockets community! My name's Joel, I'm a novice REI looking to learn, connect, and take down my first deal in the Buffalo, NY area!

My situation:

I've got excellent credit, strong income/savings rate, and can comfortably afford ~60k in upfront costs. However, my income/tax history for the past few years is... messy. After consulting with a family friend loan officer (22+ years with M&T), it sounds like my chances of qualifying for a QM are basically nill, at least for the next year or so. Which brings me to....

DSCR loans! I've contacted half a dozen commercial lenders, and it seems like they're all interested in funding me to take down my first multi-family property, so long as it's in (near) rental ready condition.

My question to the community:

Does anyone here have experience using DSCR-based commercial loans to purchase rentals? What condition do those rentals have to be in? Is there sufficient value-add potential in such a deal so as to be worth it? Am I even making any sense?!?!

Thanks for reading, and looking forward to meeting some of you at the next meetup!

Sincerely,

Joel the Novice