Oh and don't forget, extra job will do two things, decrease Debt to income, plus you can use extra cash for debt payoff or down payment.If you still fall short, you can always sell couple of bottles of blood a month or/and if you still have any energy left, get a third weekend job.I honestly would do all that, not because i want to get into my own house so bad, because getting my first property will give me the taste of blood that real estate investing is.

I'm looking for some great areas to invest in within a 3 hour radius from New York. Frankly it's too expensive over here and I'm itching to get in.

How's Pennsylvania or Connecticut?
Any advise is much appreciated

Indy        One but there is new blood and one of them worked for the one I funded.. funded 43.

Every property we've been interested in in our area in the last two months is gone before we can look at it, seems hard to get ahold of a good deal, because we take longer to run numbers than hardened investors - so it seems like we only have time to evaluate the properties passed on by "blood hound" investors like you who can sniff out a good deal, and pass on something like this.

I've spoken with other investors and the problem is 2% properties typically are trying to get blood from a stone.

You can't squeeze blood from a rock, sometimes they just don't have the money and you have to wait.

I am glad he wasnt hurt only a few razor scrapes on his forearm  and some blood spattered on the door and walls, and by being a good samaritan to him in return he was able to save me from losing about 8 windows and some other materials I had stored there.

Still too rich for my blood, and as I turned to walk away I could feel their disdain.But wait – there’s more!

I finally found a 3 bed 1 bath REO property in Griffith, IN which met all my criteria so I jumped at the deal and made an offer.Since then, here is a short list of surprise complications which made me wonder if we would ever get through it: -seller (bank) had some initial reserves with me using a loan even though the listing said conventional loans were fine-seller made me prequalify with their bank even if I wanted to use a lender of my choice -struggled for a few weeks trying to get a lost W2 from previous employer for underwriter -while in underwriting I needed to supply some new document ever couple days (or so it seemed), go on a conference call with my banks and credit bureau, write nearly 10 letters of explanation, until I was ready for them to ask for the blood of my firstborn -after the home was inspected it was vandalized when someone broke a bedroom window -bank refused to fix the window and lender wouldn't move forward until it was fixed leaving me to do repairs on a house I didn't own-lender nearly backed out because I wanted to use money loaned to me for the down payment-lender rejected first couple insurance providers I supplied until we finally worked something outSo here we are, after all that I'm cleared to close and begin fixing the house up and getting it ready to rent (BRRRR). 

I know the seller may think their 1 year lease option on their home will sell, but you don't know how qualified that buyer was, or how that deal was structured - and no matter how well you qualify (you can even make them sign a blood oath and give you their first born child as collateral), you're still looking at a 50-70% likelihood that the other buyer will actually buy their home - I don't like gambling on a 20-50% chance that I'll lose.