Your initial terms will vary based on your investment experience, but generally, you want to plan on needing 20% of the purchase price if you're a newer investor and the lender will cover 100% of the rehab.

It can still qualify if it's a fixer-upper, as long as the rental income from the property can cover the debt service.

Quote from @Tom Server: I’m looking for advice on the best way to access about $100k to pay off my 401k loan, credit card debt, and cover some rehab costs.Here the information-  I purchased 2 properties last year, 1 is a rental property that i had for about 8 months, the balance of the mortage is 170k, worth around 300k .

You’ll put 5% down but get 2% back on sale (which might pay for your closing costs) and then do a rent by the room to cover your expenses and downpayment for next year) Not sure which university you are at but both Henrietta and South Wedge are solid places to start (serving RIT and UR respectively) Good luck, I personally think Rochester is a great area to start due to constrained supply with a growing population

Your homeowner policy may cover minor repair work but probably not a large construction project. 

But you can get value out of all of them if you work them right.The reality is, for profit or non-profit, all REIAs have costs to cover just to operate.

That leaves $400 to cover taxes, maintenance, vacancies, etc.Now, let's pretend ALL your expenses come to $2,600 and you have $400 left over.

The down payment and I'll cover the rest with renting cash flow.  

Or if they were rentals the losses may have been covered up by the Ponzi scheme.

In other words, your renters have covered a majority of your costs of ownership this year, including covering your debt, and you have to put some additional money in, which raises your cost basis.