Next Steps to grow

[Lee G.]

I finally pulled the trigger on a nice 4-plex. Things have been running great and I'm really enjoying all aspects of investing and running this building. I really would like to do more deals and have found some good deals that fall into into my model (buy and hold, 2-4 unit student housing) but I know I won't get approved for the financing on them. I was laid off in October but have pulled together a bunch of consulting clients and have the income from the building so there's money there but not the w-2 income that the banks like. I've talked to a couple brokers and they say they have some lenders who will do deals with me if I have 40% down but that doesn't make a whole lot of financial sense because my returns are significantly diminished.

So my question is what would you do in my position? I see a couple options but perhaps there are some ways you can point out -

1) Suck it up and get a "real" job with w-2 income again
2) Put the ambition away for awhile until I have more cash on hand
3) Pound away looking for seller financing deals
4) ???

Thanks for any advice.