To get a loan to buy you should have 3 months PITI, investors need 6 months of liquid funds.You should have funds available or the ability to borrow for emergencies.One thing that helps new folks is getting credit at the box stores, you can float material costs.You need to be able to cover the deductible for insurance losses.There is no set amount past what lenders want to see, it's a comfort level. :)

Nothing wrong with floating an informal offer, the worst you are going to get is a flat "no".  

I have enough cash to float both loans until the first one sells, I dont want to lose this new house I found.

Then, that same week, we had a huge snow storm on that Thursday where a wind-blown snow drift clogged the air intake of the finance.

If Sec 8 says Sally can only pay $700/mo, Sally is still paying $700/mo even if the market rents (and thus total amount of rent collected by the landlord) increases from $2000/mo to $2500/mo.People have been working that angle in my area, Oakland specifically, for a long time.... buy a cashflow negative property, float it a while, and each time a tenant cycles out, boom put that unit on Section 8.

The thinner vinyl isn't truly floating on the soft underlayment. 

I will be calling local banks tomorrow to float it past their commercial departments but in the meantime does anyone have a recommendation of where to look to put this package together. 

Typical terms are a floating I/O note during rehab, converting to a miniperm at 5.5% fixed for 5 years with 1pt origination.

I mean, seriously, you're collecting rents from day one (or week one) so you have the gross rents sitting in your bank account at least for a couple of weeks to use as a float.  

You need to know they can float the business for awhile and have deeper pockets when not a national tenant.