Would you start a direct mail campaign to find 2-4 unit multi, in hopes of using a FHA loan...

[Brandon Heath]

Hello BP!

I'm wondering if anyone has done this or if anyone can provide some insight on how this could work. I really would like my first purchase to be a great legitimate deal. I know that in order to locate deals now days, you have to get out there and get your hands dirty (especially in my San Diego market). My hope is to start a direct mail campaign to hunt down a small multi unit at a great, off market price. I hope to use either a standard FHA loan or try for a 203K loan (if needed or if possible). I am wondering what this looks like once I find someone who is willing to sale.

Should I have financing already set up? Only problem I have with this is that I know it will take a few months to find anything.

Should I always try to see if the seller would be interested in financing the deal until I found funding? Is it normal to request 6 months or 3 months? (I feel like I only hear about years being thrown around)

Should I try to seller finance even longer? I've heard a few podcasts that talk about seller financing being a great option that people don't request enough.

I currently rent and would like to stop throwing away ridiculous amounts of money every month. I plan to be a buy and hold investor in my local area.  At the moment I'm not interested in investing out of state. It's seems every time I ask a question about investing in San Diego I get 5 people telling me that there is no chance to be profitable and I need to try investing out of state. I do understand where they are coming from but also I understand that even if I did Invest abroad and made crazy amounts of money, I still will be paying for a rough over my head. If I'm able to shrink that living expense as much as possible, even if it doesn't "cash flow", I still think its a great investment in time and my overall wealth building ability.  

I am extremely green in regards to REI and would appreciate any and all feed back (even the people who will still reply with GTFO of San Diego).

Thanks everyone for their time