I'm a newbie and taking my first step into real estate investing.

[Silvia V V Coats]

Hello Everone!  

There is a property for sale that is in the area I want to be in. The issues are that the owner is listing it as a land sale because of the 2 little houses on the property where built without a permit and they're not up to code.  He is asking for 150,000. My question is about financing. Would I be able to get a mortgage on this even if I have to bring the houses up to code? Also, the realtor says if we bring it up to code it would be worth 290,000.  If I can not get a mortgage would a hard money leader be a good option instead?