23 years old, $100k in the bank, and just lost my job.

[Jonathan Hammoi]

Hey guys and gals! Long time lurker, first time poster!

Just turned 23 the other day. A few days later, my net worth passed the $100k mark and then, that same week, I lost my primary job. I know this is quite the wall of text, but I don't really have any family or friends who are financially knowledgeable and don't really know where I should turn to for advice, so I apologize ahead of time for the novel below.

I had been working two jobs, seven days a week, 72+ hours a week for the past six months, and had planned on continuing to do so until I could secure a loan and make the transition into a rehab project on what would be my first property (I decided a while ago that real estate was my answer to early financial freedom). However, even though I still have my other job, I fear that I won't be able to secure a loan now, due to the fact that I'm only working 16 hours a week, bringing in only about $800/mo after taxes. Does this mean that hard-money/private-money lenders are now my only option? Should I find another full-time job and basically just start over, working my way to a level of income that a lender is comfortable with?

FYI, I have no certifications/degrees/college education, dropped out of high school, and hardly any work experience. These two jobs are the only jobs I've ever had. The part-time one is in the personal security field (3 years with that company) and the full-time one I just lost was in the commercial agricultural industry (6 months with that company). Also, just for the record, I lost my job because they closed down their site where I was working at. I was actually offered a place in the company at a different location, but I wasn't comfortable with moving far away for a job I wasn't exactly fond of.

Currently, I'm living in Southern California, and was planning on making my first investment purchase here for a variety of reasons. But, the prices are quite high in my area and, realistically, I think my best chance at getting a good deal here was by utilizing an FHA loan, which I doubt I'll be able to qualify for now that my monthly income has dropped by nearly 25%.

I've been doing my due diligence when it comes to my financial education, read nearly all of the BiggerPockets books, the classics, been following webinars, networking with local investors, talking with local property managers, ect. But, now that FHA and conventional loans are most likely out of the question, I'm pretty unsure as to what my best strategy is at this point. I suppose I could start looking into cheaper locations, maybe even out of state, but then I'd have to start over from the beginning with my research, my networking relationships, and everything else. I suppose hard-money/private-money could work but, since I have no experience in flipping, rehabbing, and the like, I'd want to be as careful as possible when dealing with short-term, high-interest loans.

Anyways, sorry again for the giant wall of text. I don't expect most people to read it but for those who do, if anyone has any advice at all that they'd be willing to share, I'd very much appreciate it. Thanks!

For anyone wondering how I made that much money in the time span of just a few years, essentially it just breaks down to living extremely below my means, and making a few large, high risk/high potential return investments which just so happened to pay off. Essentially, I got really lucky.