New to RE Investing- Funding

[Britton Anderson]

2) Funding... To be honest, this one is EXTREMELY confusing for me- I don't know what all of my options are (the whole "you don't know what you don't know" thing) and I don't know the steps to take to get funding, including when I should be getting it (ie: getting funds before I place an offer or after).

a) Hard Money Lenders- Do we get pre-approved for a max loan amount they will offer us prior to finding a house and placing an offer? Or do we need to find a house first, then get approval for the funds?

a.1) Do I understand this loan type correctly- typically hard money loans are used for fix/flip properties or double closes, correct? And typically we need to come to the table with some $ of our own, correct? What if we don't have 10% of the cost of the home to put down? Does this mean we can't move forward with this type of transaction until we do? And in this case, we'd have to complete a few assignments to save up some $ to put down on this type of transaction

b) Traditional loans- used for buy & hold properties only correct? and same question as above- what if we don't have 10% or 20% of the cost to put down? Any creative financing ideas to cover this?

Thanks,

Beth