Financial Housekeeping before my 1st Investment Property

[Kyle J. Cooper]

It's been a long time coming. All the time spent day dreaming over getting out of debt, building up savings for a down payment, and investing in that first property. Ahhh 2020 was that year! Then this thing called COVID-19 came around(Socialism for some of you conspiracy theorists), and wrecked many people's plans. I was one of those people, but I haven't given up hope, just yet!

The last few years have been productive to say the least. Personally I've gone from broke and in 90K in student loan debt(but still with a Bachelor's Degree), to increasing income 5X and being completely out of debt in my early 30s. My overall desire has been to enter REI from a position of strength, and once this pandemic hit and so many people lost their income(myself included) it seems to have put my plans on temporary hold.

Personally I have 6 months worth of expenses in an emergency fund, as well as enough for a down payment on a house hack, excellent credit, and before this pandemic had a fantastic DTI (I was hoping to use this to my advantage with lending). What are my options here? Do I need to find other creative ways for financing or should I just find another W-2 in order to qualify for more traditional lending? Partner with someone who would qualify for a mortgage and just bring the down payment?

Any suggestions would be great! Thanks BP and keep spreading Love