Finding a mortgage lender

[Michael Bacile]

Hey BP, I’ve took the step to get pre-qualified and start looking for my first live-in rental remodeled to use as my first investment. My current rental lease is up in October so I have a 8 month window. The lender I was working with at my local bank was great at responding and giving info up front but now seems impossible to contact. I have 3 days to shop around before I’m out of time on the hard pulls on my credit. I was hoping to do a fha 30/yr that way I’d have money left for a cushion and some to start the remodel. I’m quickly coming to the conclusion that I have almost no options on the market with that strategy in my area. 

My question is should I take the 3 days to shop a new lender and keep scanning the mls for a fixer or continue to save so I can have a better down payment and open up more options that way. I’ve been looking into the brrrr strategy but don’t think I’ll be competent enough to pull that off with my first investment.