Rehab Loan Options for Private Residence

[John Casmon]

After living in a duplex and house-hacking for the last 3 and 1/2 years, we've decided it's time to buy our own single family home in Chicago. Our neighborhoods are down to North Center, Old Irving Park and Oak Park. However, the ideal homes in these areas aren't exactly cheap. Even the fixer uppers are too expensive to qualify for an FHA 203k loan. We're going to want to do a substantial rehab and need to figure out some financing options for these expenses. I started looking into construction loans, but I'm unfamiliar with them and not sure if this is the best (only) route. We have a flip project with hard money and multi family rentals with conventional and commercial financing, but need a better sense of our financing options here. Any thoughts on other financing options for the rehab/construction of an owner-occupied SFR?