Tricky situation to finance, running into roadblocks. Help!

[Ashleigh Galucia]

Good evening! I'm sure this is one of the most asked questions on this forum..."how to finance your first deal?". I have looked into multiple options and keep running into road blocks for my particular situation, so I am looking for any recommendations. 

A little information on my current situation, my husband and I are new investors looking to secure our first property in the next few months. While we have enough cash for a down payment, we do not have funds to cover entire purchase (although we do plan to become cash buyers as soon as possible). My background is in finance so that will be my department while my husbands background is in multiple areas of construction (HVAC, concrete, plumbing, electrical and general carpentry) so he will be putting in the sweat equity. We are also seriously considering owner occupying our first property or two.

I have investigated multiple options but thus far have hit a snag with each...

Since we are looking at mostly foreclosures/REO, they all need at least moderate to semi extensive repairs, which disqualifies us from most any type of standard mortgage financing.

It seemed as if the 203K repair loan may be a great option, but I found those are not intended for those planning to sell in a short time frame and they also do not allow you to do your own repairs. My husband plans to do the majority of the repairs minus those which require a license outside of what he has. This seems like it may be our biggest issue with looking at private investors as well because outside of being new to the game with no prior flips to show, there is the added risk when we are doing our own work. Although we know the extent of his construction experience, I fully understand that me saying "my husband can do it" means nothing to an investor! Until we prove ourselves, we are just like anyone else who thinks they can swing a hammer. 

So my questions are...

What are some good ways to short term (3-9 months) finance a property on which you plan to do your own repairs? (owner occupied or not)

Would there be better options if we purchased in our LLC name (also just getting started up obviously) and did not owner occupy to use business loans/lines of credit?

Although we would love to be cash buyers on our first property, we want to get into the game sooner than we would be able to make that happen.

I really appreciate any advice! For someone with a degree in finance who likes to think I have a general clue, this specific situation has me totally stumped!