I had a gastric bypass 15 years ago, no pretty much just water.

I wanted to hear from veteran investors on here whether I'm being shortsighted and costing myself opportunities and money.My history is that I did about 200+ units of condo-conversions back in 2003-2008 and then lost a good part of my shirt (at least the sleeves, leaving me a nice wifebeater tanktop), and came back by starting a property management company and purchasing properties here and there for buy and hold (and manage, since I have a management company).There is a lot of talk of wheelin' and dealin' on here and lots of bird-dogging and wholesaling, and flipping real estate.  

Zillow purchasing Trulia for close to $3B shows the rest of the world they have something up their sleeves.

They are going to lend based on the property's ability to make money as well as your ability to operate and manage it so that it makes money.Unfortunately, there is no "easy" button, you just have to roll up your sleeves and get after it.  

So even though you technically can't count it as a down payment reduction, it serves the same purpose.There's also a way when you refi your existing home to put some extra funds in your pocket without doing a cash out refi.Sounds like you need a different LO that can roll up their sleeves and help you to make this work...

Pay the management to go bye bye, roll up the sleeves and steer the business back to printing money.  

@Isiah Ferguson  good luck but in all honesty, in the very short time I worked in the trades, the attitude you are going to receive for the most part is that you'll get in the way and be a liability (insurance, etc.)...and honestly, it's no different than the attitude many folks on a jobsite will convey about going to trade school being worthless.I've seen roofing crews drive by a house that's getting worked on by a different roofing company that has called OSHA because the other company wasn't tied in; I've seen one construction company call the code inspector on another for not having permits; I've even seen OSHA called in on finish carpenters for not wearing long sleeves and having steel toes.  

Always looking for enthusiastic local people who don´t mind rolling their sleeves up. 

Most likely the main sewer line needs to be sleeved or replaced.

The best way to start doing this IMO is getting your RE license and working as an agent, or buying a small fixer house locally for yourself and rolling up your sleeves to fix and eventually rent, or better yet both.