Newby Needing Advice!

[Samantha Harrison]

Hello! I have been looking at getting into real estate for the past year or so, and my husband and I are finally ready to jump in. Here is our situation: we downsized about 2.5 years ago to a house that we had planned to rent out, we have about 36k in a HELOC that we can use right now to either buy another house to move into or put into an investment property. We just had a baby back in October and are not keen on the idea of moving right now, plus our mortgage is crazy cheap so we don't really want to lose that right now either. So, we are looking at putting the HELOC into a long-term rental property. The homes we are looking at are between 75-120k and I would really like to stay in the lower range of that so we can generate a better monthly cashflow, however I am learning that most lenders will only go as low as 75k (which would actually be a 100k deal with 20% down). My advice needed- are there any other lending options to purchase a house that has an 80-90k asking price? I am having a hard time determining the best way to get a good deal done if I can only get a loan to cover a purchase price of 100k or more.