I’m especially grateful for your willingness to lend me some of your knowledge along the way.

I’ve heard from others it is still a ough thing to get lending on.The suggested way that bankers have given me is to have the end buyer apply for the loan and we build the house for them.

Based on what you wrote here, I think the lesson should have been to not chase a specific number of properties, rather chase a specific number of dollars.The lesson was to build some sort of active income within real estate through lending, which I'm currently doing, rather than chasing ownership of rental properties. 

A lender would have to be a fool to lend on collateral that wasn't protected - if the house is lost in a fire or whatever, the loan is unsecured at that point and is basically credit card debt. 

REI Nation has special lending partners who know how to close these deals fast—we closed in 29 days.

You'll need some sort of active income, whether it's wholesale, fix and flip or lending.

I am currently going throught the lending process and research some of my top locations.  

Hello,Looking at investing in my first syndication as an LP. 

Some of the projects were with a local partner as well and then the managing chores were split between us.The lending perspective was stiff in the beginning, as I didn't have any experience at all, also no credit score, and that project was only by myself, so the leverage was low, but I could work on a low-price property to start.Fast forward 5 years, I have built a credit score with 2 credit cards under my ITIN of more than 650, and done 4 properties as experience.

One fun fact to consider is that your first use of the VA loan does not come with the lending cap so if you did want to try and get a 4 unit on that first purchase you may be able to shoot a bit higher if you can qualify for the loan, which in VB may be your only avenue to multifamily without going toward the Norfolk area.