Then, if you did see a property for an investment down the road, there are always other lending options that don't consider your personal debt-to-income ratio.  

You can compete with them by offering to buy and front cash as opposed to lend to the estate.Like I said, not for someone looking for low hanging fruit or for someone without a legal team, but there are some fabulous deals working with estates.

I've worked in institutional single family acquisitions for a few years and have rarely had good experiences with turnkey investors.

Do DSCR lenders even look at projected DCRs or do they mostly just care about what they see at time of lending?

There are handful of crowdfunding lending companies emerged lately.They all seem to share a need to be an accredited investor to start investing.In order for an individual to qualify as an accredited investor, he or she must accomplish at least one of the following:1) earn an individual income of more than $200,000 per year, or a joint income of $300,000, in each of the last two years and expect to reasonably maintain the same level of income.2) have a net worth exceeding $1 million, either individually or jointly with his or her spouse.3) be a general partner, executive officer, director or a related combination thereof for the issuer of a security being offered.How strict is the accreditation requirement is being followed?

I already have a couple potential deals, but the biggest hurdle I'll face is finding a private money lender who's willing to lend to someone with minimal experience.

I have one of my private lenders lending me 20k and make $1500.00 in 37 days. 

Strategy: Agreed if you can get away with only getting lending on one property that will cut costs, but if you need to in order to scale then may be a cost of doing business. 

@Robin CastilloLLCs are useful for legal protection, but they require separate tax filing, typically cost several hundred dollars to create, and most non-commercial lenders will not lend to LLCs.Commercial lenders will lend to LLCs, but their interest rates are significantly higher and they require collateral that regular lenders don't.I would not create a LLC specifically due to the issues in getting a traditional mortgage it will likely cause.One potential route though, is to get a traditional mortgage in your name and then assume the loan after a 6mo "seasoning" period with your LLC.

One last thing when looking into 5 plus units you will be in the commercial lending space.