Conventional financing requires 12 months of seasoning.

The borrower was overqualified, the property was cash flow positive, I approached a local lender and due to the strength of property and borrower they provided essentially conventional terms of 25% down on a 25 year amortization where as other investors could only consider the transaction as cash. 

The majority of investors have utilized low down payment conventional mortgages, or DSCR loans and the majority were able to secure seller concessions between 1-3%. 

I had been prepared to just get conventional financing. but if I need to  go another route, does anyone have any suggestions?

One big advantage of this strategy is you can use conventional financing with a lower amount down as it will be your primary residence which also has a lower interest rate than an income property loan.On your question about buying section 8 rentals, I think this is also a good strategy to add to your portfolio and you can buy section 8 duplexes in Lansing, MI for around 100K and its a great rental and investment market.To your success!

These Sponsors tour the convention circuits and roll out robust social media brands to get their name out and raise funds from smaller investors.

There are some "no doc" loans out there that investors or other folks use, but the tradeoff is that the rate ends up being higher than conventional loans. 

It has been a great rental with a fixed conventional mortgage rate, generating cash flow from day 1 and already gaining equity due to the increased value.

With a 20% down payment conventional at 20yr am I can barely break even with just PITI right now.

I may switch to a 5% conventional loan to avoid the risk of failing the self-sufficiency test.