How did you advance past 5 properties? any success tips?

[William Huston]

Hello All, 

Its been a while since i have bought a property for myself or investment, lately i have been on the search for another property as i am planning on moving as well purchase another investment property. I had 7 properties up till a few months ago, i downsized to 5 after selling 2 non-performing rentals, but since its been years since i have purchased a house the strictness of purchasing has changed a lot. I posted something similar to this in a conversation on another post, but i wanted to make a post separate to get more input. Currently i have a great credit score, but because i am no longer in the military and now working fairly new job its been extremely difficult to get another loan. I have taken some advice i read about and contacted local banks, not the big name banks, but most just plain will not touch me period due to how many loans i currently have. 

I have had a few offer me loans, but they would only offer me a loan under "NON-Investing" and the interest rate they offered me seemed to be a bit high or they asked for 25% down plus points. The only companies i have found that would offer me an investment loan at this moment was in the 6%+ range with 20-25% down, which just seemed like a rip-off... 

Just looking for more advice, i want to continue to invest as i gain more knowledge in real estate investing, because id like to increase my passive income to be FI, just seems like the new limits have put a wall in place.