New Investor... kinda

[Dorys Prentice]

Hello, 

I'm trying to get some guidance and what to do with the profit we made on a sale of our property in CA.  My husband and I recently moved from CA to TX.  In CA, we owned 2 properties, one we lived in and the property right next door was rented to family for about 9 yrs.  We ended up selling our primary to my mom, used the profit to rehab the rental and moved into the rental.

First lesson learned - do not do business with family.  (very long story)

This being said, we did make a decent profit on our sale in CA. We were able to pay cash for a new property in TX and put a large chunk of change in the bank.  Hubby is 65 and basically decided to retire (with no retirement savings) and I'm 55 and work as a contract web designer/developer.  My income alone is not enough to live off of so right now we're dipping onto our savings. 

I'd like to invest either in a SFH or duplex and get some cash flow going. We have cash to purchase a property outright but we do not want to tie up that much cash in one property. We have a great credit score, just not enough income so we do not qualify for a conventional bank loan for purchase.

So my question is, if we purchase a property for cash, rehab, get new tenants in with leases, and THEN go to a lender to pull money out would that help us securing a loan?