I am financially stable, but I went freelance about two years ago. The first 1.5 years I didn't make much money and took out from my savings to pay the mortgage on my primary residence. I've started making a good income doing freelance this year (6 mo worth) and I've been learning about REI for cash flow and was hoping to start this year. However, I live in an expensive city (Seattle) and although I can afford a downpayment on an investment property, I don't seem to qualify for a mortgage if I do bc banks take the average income of the last 24 months to determine ability to pay. Given I've only been making money for the last 6 months freelance, this isn't working in my favor. So, I'm in a weird situation where I can't get a mortgage and I don't qualify for things like FHA (at least, as far as I understand FHAs).

What are my options? It seems like hard money doesn't work as they are high interest and short term, and what I need is exactly the opposite. I DON'T have enough money buy a house here cash-in-full, so that's not an option either. Any thoughts? I feel like I'm stuck in this weird in-between so any ideas would be helpful.

Thanks!