My first investment

[Ramesh Ramdatt]

Hello everyone, I joined BiggerPockets a year ago and I have learned so much by reading the blogs and listening to the podcast. I bought my first house in July of 2015 (505k) under an FHA 3.5% down in queens NY. Because I got a good deal on the house I am able to Refi this year and drop the PMI because the house is now appraised at 645k. I am expecting closing any day now. And the rent from the house will cover my mortgage while I live for free in one unit, all I have to do is pay for he bills which is not much compared to renting in NYC. After the Refi I want to purchase an investment property, my goal for 2017 is to buy one investment property just one. With that goal in mind I started looking around early January and I think I found one but I need some help. I can get to purchase a piece of land for 175K which is zoned for a single family house. I found a contractor who is willing to build the house at cost (150K) but wants to split he profit on the sale of the house. So 175K for purchase plus another 175K to build plus holding costs (12 months to be safe) and we can resell according to comps at 450K-500K, which will give us a profit of 100K-150K. (Maybe less for things we missed being that this is our first project) The problem is that neither of us have much funds, and the one hard money lender that we found that is willing to work with first time investors will only fund half of the project. Which will only cover the purchase of the land. I was thinking that I may be able to purchase the land through traditional financing and borrow the construction funds. I don't have friends or family members with that kind of money available or I would have just asked them. Anyone have any ideas that may help? How can I fund this project?