Welcome to BP from another South Floridian.Your best bet will be to connect with a HML.This way you can leverage that $120k for flips.Otherwise you will be very limited on what you can buy.P.S.

I know a lot of investors wouldn't want to go this route because they want to hedge their bets ("What if I don't make much money, then I'll still have to pay them interest!")

It's often seems they put things up for sale with insane prices like CL sellers using free ADS, than pull them from the market after no suckers take the bait. 

More news from Wall Street JOurnal todayWall Street is betting that more well-off Americans will want to be renters.Financiers who loaded up on homes after the housing bust for pennies on the dollar are buying yet more—despite home prices in many markets being at all-time highs.Their wager: High prices, higher mortgage rates and skimpy inventory are making homeownership harder.

Other options include:retirements accountsprivate lenders (like your friends and family)personal loansBut refinance would be my first bet as well.

@Zach Robbins I am primarily interested in multi-family rentals; however, single family may be a better bet for my first go at it. 

I haven't done a refinance yet but I can talk about the closing costs of my first deal (which I bought with a conventional 30 year loan):Underwriting fees: 600Appraisal: 675Title Fees: 1650Recording Fees: 150One year of insurance prepaid: 600Initial Escrow payment: 400So overall, I paid about 4k for closing costs as well, but I bet this also depends from area to area.

Online banks or banks that operate in both states will probably be your best bet.

Some lenders might accept accessible funds in retirement accounts for this, but your best bet is to have it there.

there are ways around credit checks, but you pay an even higher premium to do so. best bet imo is to partner with someone as a passive investor while you learn comm real estate and boost your credit score.