Seeking advice for lending

[Dustin Carr]

I have 2 properties under contract in the Poconos that I planned to furnish and rent on a short-term basis.  The investor we had lined up to split both properties with just backed out due to personal finance reasons, and now we are stuck with both contracts in our name.

We could choose one home and cancel the other contract with a high likelyhood of getting our money back, but ideally I still want to purchase both properties, I just don't have the equity to do it at the moment. I really don't want to sell any other personal financial securities, and I need to avoid leveraging more equity from my current 2 homes as I need to keep my DTI down.

My question is: I hear of people all the time saying they bought property using OPM, but even Private lenders are telling me they need at least 15% down, so how is it that anyone gets property without having that cash upfront on their own?  Or do you have any other advice for what I can do?