Have unemployment & savings. How do I invest in rentals w/o bank?

[Victoria Rogers]

I've been wanting to invest in rental properties for a while. I am currently getting unemployment (got laid off from the oil and gas industry). I have been doing a few freelance marketing and public relations gigs. So, I'm getting slow income that way as well.

I also have a decent amount of money saved in my savings account in addition to a decent 401K balance but I don't want to touch my 401K.

I have good credit - I started the loan process with my bank (Bank of America) and my 3 scores were 729, 747 and 755. The bank is requesting checkstubs from the past 30 days and clearly, I don't have any to report since I'm unemployed.

Yes, I could get another job but quite frankly I'd prefer to freelance, invest in a rental property for the cash flow and travel for a bit. At this point, it seems like getting a loan from my bank will be out of the question. I'm open to finding cash investors via networking events and craigslist ads, etc but what are the risks? What do cash investors look for when going into a deal with someone? Would they ask me for checkstubs like the bank or if I just came across a good deal and showed them how they could make money from it, could I go from there? What is the process for getting a loan from an investor even like? Is it similar to borrowing from the bank? 

All advice and tips are welcome! Should I just freelance and travel for a bit then come back and get another job (bleh) then apply for a loan?