Broke newbie seeking financing advice.

[Kico Mendoza]

Hi all!

I am looking to jump into the real estate game. My goal is to flip houses in my immediate San Diego neighborhood and hold on to some as rentals. We also have great older 4 unit attached multi-family's in and around my hood as well as cute 4-6 unit small detached cottage style multi-family's. My goal is to build a small portfolio of these to carry me through the rest of my days financially while providing a real connection to my neighborhood which I love very much.

To begin my journey I'd like to flip a house. San Diego is expensive. My family and I were fortunate enough to purchase in the trough of the 2008ish real estate crash so we ended up in a neighborhood we would not be able to afford now. We've brought our late 1920's house back to it's former glory while adding all the modern conveniences. I've always had the desire to do it again. Walking our Golden Retriever around the neighborhood I am very familiar with which houses are great candidates for flips or buy and holds. My problem is I don't have the money to buy and/or repair them.

There were two very recent properties I could kick myself for not making an effort to take advantage of. The first was a fast 3/2 1953 sq ft flip. It sold for $958K back in August. I figured with less than a $100K remodeling budget and about 3 months time it could be resold for $1.25M. It just sold pre-listing for $1.366M. And by the looks of the remodel, which I watched happen over the last few months, they didn't come close to the $100K I estimated. 

A second property not a block from the one above is currently pending at $895K. It's a 3/2 1492 sq ft and doesn't need nearly as much work as the property above. I suspect it will re-list at $1.25M as well. 

My issue is I don't have the financial resources to get into these properties. My wife is financially conservative and wouldn't dip into our retirement savings for a project like this. We have equity in our home but w've already used some for other purposes and don't really want to push that to the limits. 

I'm looking for advice on where to get financing. What type of financing should I seek? Hard money? Private money? Credit Unions? Find a $$$ partner? I'm just spit balling here and hoping the BP community can share some ideas.

Thanks!