You can advertise historic performance.  

Getting one property and cashflowing it will be a challenge. you can try seller financing but you are still going to be highly levered which just enhances the risk that you are taking on.The best way to grow is to focus on managing your rental, saving money through your W2 and crushing that - if you are a realtor you will make more crushing it as being a realtor than over leveraging real estate - then save for down payment and buy slowly. its not a rush.

Lenders that don’t require an appraisal will perform a desktop appraisal but will typically have a very conservative view on the value of the property to protect the company’s investment.

When you have a proven track record of performance, then you can play with other people's money. 

I look forward to seeing how this property performs compared to the properties in AR.

He even agreed to selling me one of his since it’s already performing and ready to go.

The bank will put a hold on them, so you can't just draw them out, so don't plan to need them for a while.This will cost you an appraisal on both properties to be performed by that lender. 

I had a unique perspective of how these two industries working together.While performing an inspection on a house, I got to chat with the seller and found he was a commercial construction superintendent for a large local company.

You can use a tool like AirDNA to get estimates of property performance in your specific market and with your typical size and configuration of home.

My business partner and I own some STR's here that perform well and are in areas that will definitely appreciate in the near future.