Buy and Hold strategies for W2's ONLY?!?

[Erik Cabral]

Disclaimer: this is a bit of a rant and a story for venting purposes. 

Professionally, I've been employed as a graphic artist and creative director for 20+ years. I was laid off in January 2017 so at this point, I could have gone back to what I've been doing for two decades but decided to make a move away from the rat race and into REI for financial freedom and to raise my financial IQ. Since my wife and I saved enough capital to invest the plan was to flip homes for income. When I discovered there were other strategies such as Buy and Hold, BRRRR, etc. I wanted to also include this in my toolbelt.

Fast forward to today after two months of research, networking, starting my LLC, etc. I've been talking to local banks for a loan to get pre-approved in case I find a deal that fits the buy and hold or BRRRR strategies. The common advice I've been getting is to go back to work full or part-time for the W2 income (hence, going back to trading my time for dollars). This way when banks review my financial resume they'll more likely consider me if I am a W2 employee. My other option is to run my business for the next 2 years (I assume consisting primarily of flips) and then go back to banks who can help float my mortgage(s) to build a portfolio. With this strategy, I'd have to wait TWO YEARS before buying anything for long-term investment.

It's a bit frustrating to find this out after all the research I've done so far. This is a major linchpin in this type of strategy and I think any discussion, article, blog post regarding this strategy should point that out for newbies like myself so we don't get our bubbles bursted once we find out. 

Rant over. Thank you for listening.