First time buyer financing

[Wael Taleb]

Hello everyone, my name is Wael. I want to start investing in real estate in the southwest Florida area. I live in Michigan but plan to move down there. This will be my first time buying a home. My plan is to get a house I can live in and rent a couple rooms for starter to help pay the mortgage and make some passive income. I'm a handyman / carpenter so I'm looking at houses that need some fixing ( I can fix most, if not everything ) thus getting it under market value, raising the house's value, holding it and getting a passive income. But I'm having a hard time finding a conventional loan lender, especially for a fixer upper and me being self employed. As for a hard money lender, I talked to a couple and they want some "skin in the game" which I don't have or a 25% down payment which I also don't have now. I've seen so many properties I know I can make a profit out of but can't seem to find a way to get started. Any tips or guidance on what I can do would be highly appreciated!