You may be able to do that or some kind of bridge loan.

I live over the bridge in Auburn and I did the same 11 year ago.

@Michael King Provided you take care of the zoning/classification issues, you can look into getting a hard money loan (HML)/bridge financing for a few months.

The purchase price is based on the sales comparison approach as vacant to allow bridge funding for renovations then the income approach is used when occupied/stabilized for the permanent financing.

My opinion is that we should get as much as possible so that we can pursue a wider range of possibilities, and so that we don’t come up short on any potential deals that we may want to pursue.The difference in the in interest rate between the 80% option and 90% option is a quarter of a percent, which does not appear to be a pro-forma breaker, especially since we are using the HELOC as a bridge loan until we can complete the rehab and seasoning before refinancing into a conventional 30 year loan.Other than the difference in percentage on the HELOC, can anyone think of reasons why a disciplined investor would not want to have a larger line of credit at their disposal?

You must talk to some hard money lenders (which can range from a private individual with cash to lend, to a quasi-mortgage broker who does HML and bridge loans - the former often being the easiest/quickest/simplest to the work with, the latter often being more like applying for a conventional mortgage), because you have to know the following about your financing options/costs in order to evaluate potential deals:LTV/down payment requirements, and whether they cover just purchase, or both purchase and rehab costs.

At work I am responsible for preliminary analysis and pricing of loan requests made via our FM SBL, Conventional, and Bridge loan programs. 

A bridge loan is a loan that is going to lead you up to permanent financing.

One bridge loan lender has told me that would also make it easier to approve the loan.

I have done over 100 million in value add renovations and the best advice I can give anyone is "Build Bridges vs.