Buying property & not having enough money for the rest.

[Alex Ascencio]

Rookie in Aurora, IL (Chicago suburb) looking for my first SFH or multi-family home to buy and hold. The issue that I am running into is that I have enough funds to put down the 20% for a conventional mortgage but it will pretty much leave me with limited funds to do any repairs, or just have emergency money in general for emergencies.

I have been hesitant to buy my first investment property due to this. How do people do it? Should I just take the risk and hope my analysis and all the due diligence will pay off, or do I look for a private lender or even possibly a HML?

Unfortunately I already have a primary home, so I can't do an FHA, live in it for a year and then rent it out.

Any advice would be much appreciated.