How Do I Get a Loan When My Income is Low?

[Chris Hodge]

I've been a real estate investor with <$30k properties for a long time... and I'm starting to hate it. I did a devastating flip because... well, I made a lot of mistakes, and I'm in the hole. About 75% of my income is going toward fulfilling obligations, so I can only invest about $400 per month. And even when I could put $2,000 per month into investing, the banks wouldn't lend to me for a proper $100k-type of rental property. It's been frustrating that friends of mine, who have lower net worths and make less (even in earned income) can get six figure loans for their private houses while I haven't been able to do that. I only have $60k in available credit through my credit cards, and my real estate agent won't accept them anyway -- so that's out. And it seems unlikely that a private lender would trust a guy who's screwed up. So, what can I do? I'm working 60+ hour weeks, but my jobs and freelance work only take in so much (usually around $4.5k/mo pre-tax). Any ideas?