New investor advice for mixed use/commercial lending

[Ben Burdick]

This is my first time posting so I’ll share a bit about myself. My name is Ben and I’m an Air Force pilot in the Destin/Fort Walton Beach area. I just learned I’ll be staying here for the next 4 years or so and I’m planning on buying an investment (primarily a live-in flip) property in the area.

I ran across an interesting listing and I am looking for recommendations since it’s a strange case.

The place I'm looking at it is actually 2 units for $400. The top unit is a condo that is vacant where I plan live for now and the bottom is rented out by an insurance company bringing in $1667/month. There is both a residential and commercial MLS listing and the area is zoned as mixed use.

Since I'm military I was trying to use the VA loan with $20K down but that won't work for this case. My lender looked into alternate loan options and didn't have any options. They recommended either a local lender or a commercial loan but I don't think I have enough to make a down payment for a commercial loan.

Do you have any recommendations for this case?