@Ashley Pittman
In general, private lenders are avoided for long-term buy-and-hold properties. If they are used, it should be for no more than a year while your property is 'seasoned' and you are establishing a rent history. The next move is to re-finance into a traditional mortgage.
Most investors use traditional conventional mortgages to get started, and then use properties they have purchased to use as leverage to finance later deals.
BP contains a wealth of information about creative financing, basically how to finance your investments with little to no money down.
You might want to check out this link. It includes a case-study (including financing details) done by @Brandon Turner on a property he later bought:
http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/04/09...
He is also hosting a webinar this upcoming Wednesday about how to find, analyze and fund a deal:
http://www.biggerpockets.com/pages/webinar
The Podcast below includes details about Peer-to-Peer Lending, which charges 5-6% less than most hard money lenders. (However, they provide less funding, generally capping around 35k per deal):
http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/08/01...
Seller Financing should also be considered. I know someone in my area who was driving by a FSBO for what they thought was one townhouse in a complex of six. She gave the owner a call and ended up buying the entire complex for no money down and at an interest rate of 5%. It was a steal. All from one phone call!