@Dan GroveAs a private money lender I agree with Nicholas' sentiment.

The key is by leveraging OPM (Other People’s Money).Do you have private money lenders in your circle who might fund the deal in exchange for equity or some interest?

private money lender How did you add value to the deal?

It was a savings account that had not ATM card etc. 

Eliminate debt, establish a budget, and save.

I am starting to realize there has been a significant amount of consolidation in the space by private equity and other institutional investors. 3) From research it also seems like getting financing can be difficult without prior experience in the space.

I might have a private lender referral that does rural loans in Mid-MO if you're interested. 

I know they used to sell a lot of their loans on Peer st.. now that Peer st is BK I suspect they are having to go pretty aggressively for private investors to back fill their orginations. 

Very unlikely unless you find a private lender/individual to do this as a one-off. 

And they'll want you to pay off the loan pretty soon (and usually will you as the rate will probably be higher than banks) so there's that too.For this reason, we definitely prefer private lenders as they will (if you've built trust with them) often lend on the rehab too.