How to expand a rental portfolio as a beginner investor.

[Jose Rodriguez]

Hello Biggerpockets,

I am a new investor looking for possibilities to expand my business. I have two rental properties with one of them as my primary residence. I am currently house hacking living in one of these properties and I am looking to get a HELOC to use it as the form of down payment for my next rental property purchase. The issue is that most conventional lenders require 4-6 months of reserves for all the properties I own. I am looking to rapidly buy more properties to expand my portfolio, which is why I have not built up that extent of reserves yet. This is something that I recognize I ideally should not do but I feel like it will take me too long to grow my portfolio if I have to build 6-month reserves for every property I own. How does one go about qualifying for a mortgage without significant reserves? Do I have to use other non-conventional lenders? What is a more efficient way to build a rental property portfolio without having a substantial amount of cash lying around?