Just started and self employed

[Harris Pantlik]

Hi All,

I am new to real estate investing and was curious to see if others have experienced my issue and what they were able to do resolve it.  I am 32 years old with excellent credit and less than 10k in consumer debts (truck note). Last summer I broke off and started consulting independently in the offshore geophysical survey industry and have been self employed coming up on a year now.  Work has been busy and I expect it to continue.  In the period of a year, I have been able to increase my yearly income by 200%, although I am still trading my time for money and I would like to buy my time back with real estate.

When I try to obtain conventional financing, the only way I have been able to get anything done is using a cosignor since I have not been self employed for at least 2 years.  I was ok doing this for my first property as it will be my primary residence in combination with a rental, but I do not want to add any more burden to my cosignor afterwards. Is this where hard money lenders come in to play?  and if so, does anyone have any recommendations for obtaining hard money in the state of South Carolina?  I really don't want to have to wait a whole year to obtain financing for future investments.

Thank you.

-HP