Financing my own fixer upper?

[Jami Woodard]

I am currently in a bidding war over a house that is in need of quite a bit of work before it's livable. The exterior walls and foundation are great. The interior and roof, not so much. I'm paying cash for the house, but I'm stuck on how to finance the rest of the repairs. My credit score is fair (after having actively worked on it for 3 years) and I have a car loan. I've been told to see if a lender would pay off my car and add the total to a home improvement loan. Is this the best option, or should I try to go with a hard money loan for the repairs and then refinance? I will still have some cash after purchase, but not enough to fix everything that needs to be done to get it livable. We will be doing the repairs ourselves, as my family are all carpenters and have built multiple homes from the ground up. I'm not trying to flip this house, or rent it out. I want to live in it.