I have an investment property free and clear. Now what

[David Ziccardi]

I recently exhausted most of my personal money to purchase and rehab an investment property. The rehab is complete and will have a tenant very soon. I would like to acquire my next property but I am now left with little personal money. I have been told by several lenders that I do not have enough income (I have worked as an independent contractor with inconsistent income since recently graduating college)  to support a refinance of my first property to get my money back out of the property. I have reached out to several private money lenders who seem to be willing to lend but I am hesitant to take their money at such high interest rates and unsure about which loan is best for me. I would also prefer not to invest with a friend or family member at this time and keeping the property free and clear to just accumulate the rental income isn't going to immediately help me get my next property. What are my best options?

[Lynn McGeein]

Given your parameters, you may want to rethink buy and hold and focus on flipping until you can build enough profit to buy and hold and still have funds for the next one.  If there is already a tenant in place, then that will be difficult.   It may be that you will need to wait and build up savings for the next one while being able to show 2 years of solid rental income to help boost your chances for conventional loans.  But if you have yet to sign a lease and can sell for a nice profit after your rehab, then hopefully you can repeat the process until you have the funds necessary for a buy and hold and funding the next flip.