All Forum Posts by: Brett Holmes

Wow, I am thrilled at the fantastic responses to my question and truly appreciate the incite that each of you has given me. I think that I may explore a HELOC as my first option, as I do own my own home and have a small amount of equity built up. If that option will not work, then I will move on to one of the other suggestions that you all have given me.

Thanks again for your helpful words of wisdom and I look forward to finding my first deal.

Hi everyone,

I'm Brett Holmes from the Springfield / Ozark, MO area and I am new here on BP.  I have been doing a lot of research and have started analyzing deals, but not quite ready to pull the trigger on anything just yet.  Starting out, I am mostly interested in buy and holds.

Here is my situation.  I went to the bank the other day and got approved for financing with no problem.  My issue is coming up with the required 20% down.  I told the banker that it would just be me on the loan, so that I can maximize the number of home loans that I can get, between myself and my wife.  When I asked about using an outside/private investor to help with down payment, he said that that was not allowed, in general, saying that you cannot use a gift as a down payment for a house.  He did say that he only required 2 months of bank statements and if that money was there for longer than that period, then there would not be a question as to where it came from.  So my issue is that, correct me if I am wrong, most investors would not want to give you a large sum of money to put into your account while you wait for at least 2 months and then try to find a deal.  Would I need to actually partner with someone on the deal and have them cosign the loan, or are there other options that I am not thinking about here.

Thanks in advance. I love this website and all the knowledge it provides.