Perhaps we "buy" the house from them for the $328K balance to satisfy the lender and don't need a large down payment and then have a separate contract with them to pay $x per month until we've paid the full $172K amount.

MUCHHHH better and of course that leaves us with plenty of room to pay the mortgage payment so the lender is happy.Btw, I just wrote the Co-Living book for BP that comes out in Spring, you can sign up for it here!

You can have your tenant pay through there.

Two, you'll have a much easier time obtaining a mortgage product if you have a track record of W2 income.In the meantime, continue implementing the strategies you mentioned: save religiously, build your credit, pay any existing debt owed, etc.

However it is worth it to pay a little bit more money for a mortgage now, so I can start building equity, assets, and future cash flow.Hey @Kody Glithero, welcome to the BP Forum and it's so great to hear you're looking to start your real estate journey as such a young age!

And you can definitely pay off your home faster if you focus on running all of your expenses through it and watch your expenses. 

.-- Or, what we do is offer the free rent AFTER & ONLY if they pay their first 3 months of rent on time to earn it.4) Lower the rent 5% every 2-4 weeks until activity picks up.5) Understand this is the worst time of year to find tenants.-- Starts picking back up end of February when this tenant pool starts getting their income tax refunds and aren't broke anymore.6) Section 8: where is the property being advertised?

I agreed to pay for the renovation with no interest credit cards.

It was like paying for multiple Master's degrees to get our "real world" experience.  

As Sean above alluded to- never pay a seller for your future hard work, risk and stress.