Just starting out buying 2 at once

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I'm Going to try to be short sweet and detailed. I feel that you guys need a little background first. I have A LOT of school loans which is killing my debt to income ratio. Banks aren't in the position to lend to me even though they see I am responsible and smart with money. My husband who I am on this venture with is very good at building repairing etc so a lot of the work we know we can do ourselves and we aren't afraid to know when to get a professional. That being said, I have a great idea for a house hack. I live in western NY right by the beautiful and majestic Niagara Falls. It's actually on the upswing so houses are cheap now but prices are starting to rise. I'd like to get into the market before it's too late. We found our dream home which is only $72,900 ARV 200k+ Right now we are living in a house my mother owns for 515 a month. It's nice but we prefer the country. (We'll call the dream home house 1 and the current home house 2) House 1 is actually a duplex. we could easily rent out the upper for 600 a month. House 2 is a 3 bed 1 bath and we are going to fix up the attic as a bonus space. I know without a doubt I can get $1,200 easy for it. We would live in the lower of house 2. We would be bringing in $1,800 a month from only 2 properties, plus the income from my job and my husband's. After that I would continue to invest in rentals until I was ready to start flipping (probably a year). I would have to get a loan to buy both properties which would be about $140,000 including closing costs etc. I don't have any money for a down payment because right now it's being swallowed by the school loans but because we are DIY ers and are really great at it I know I can pay the rehab myself. A lot of it is cosmetic. (I'm very creative.) My question is how do I get someone to lend me money with no down payment? What do I need to do? Please feel free to let me know if you have any ideas or questions. This is my first week on this site and I'm learning all I can.

[Stephanie Jacobson]

I am in such a similar position it's Erie! (Does that count as a pun?)

First and foremost, those student loans. What kind of loans are they? If there are any federal (Stafford) loans, you can do what I did: immediately get on an IBR or IDR plan, depending on which they offer. IBR= Income-Based Repayment, IDR= Income-Driven Repayment.

What that will do is lower your monthly payments to a more manageable amount. That could be a game-changer, because the bank only looks at monthly payments for a mortgage, not your total debt. 

The only catch with this is that after 25 years on one of those plans, your loans are forgiven, and you must claim what was forgiven as income on your taxes. For me that doesn't seem to matter because I needed to free up monthly cash in order to start building investments. My minimum monthly payments went from $1,500/month to $500. So much better!

Also check into second community mortgages; in Ithaca we have INHS, which offers down payment assistance. Is there anything like that in Buffalo?