Hit a brick wall right out of the gate.

[Bryan Scrivener]

I've been reading a lot and gearing up to start investing. Long story short, all the money I have for startup is in a 403b retirement account through my employer. My plan was to either borrow from that account so that I could pay myself back with interest OR roll a portion of it over into a self directed IRA. After several unpleasant phone calls I've discovered that I am not allowed to do either due to the rules set up by my employer, and those rules aren't going to change. So I have no access to those funds whatsoever, unless I terminate my employment, which I am not in a position to do.

Any chance an attorney could free up those funds?

I was hoping to avoid a mortgage on a rental property, but that seems my only option right now. Problem is that I don't even have a down payment. I do have some equity in my personal home, but borrowing against that and then taking a mortgage for a property on top of that seems like a ton of risk and it would take a pretty magical property to get any decent cashflow out of that. Has anyone had any success going that route? 

I've also considered trying to refinance my personal home (I'm 10 years into a standard 30 at 5% now) and possibly moving into a rental myself and renting out my current home to get some cashflow going. Thoughts?

Other ideas I haven't thought of? 

I've cut all the expenses I can and just saving up would take years.