Trying to buy my first investment property

[Sam Zes]

I'm in the St. Louis area and I'm trying to buy my first investment property but not having any luck finding a property.  I've made a few cash offers but none of them have been accepted.  I'm not going to overpay for a property just to get my first deal.

So I'm looking at other financing options to possibly start looking at higher priced property. I have $40,000 cash so I've been looking at this price range so far. I've been talking to a few lenders about financing options but I get different advice from all of them. What is the best strategy for my situation? Do I find a house I can pay cash for with what I have or try financing first? I don't want to get in a situation where I spend all my cash and then I can't purchase anything for 6-12 months. I'm aware of the BRRRR method but I still think it would be a 6-12 month waiting period. With the BRRRR method, I will be out of cash right away. If I finance from the beginning, I could put 20% down and still have money left over to purchase another property with 20% down. The downside of this would be not having a cash offer.

Any suggestions or advice?