-If you have 10k for a downpayment it's good that you are thinking about having reserves, but you also have to think about closing cost, if you are worried about not having tenants having a couple months' rent would be ideal-If you are new to real estate, start reading books, listening to podcasts, analyze deals, learn the tenant screening process, property management, see how you could mitigate the risk on the house hack, find an exit strategy, but most of all have patience.

We ended up getting the seller to pay for the lead mitigation of the units before close.

I'm exploring alternative financing options and would greatly appreciate insights or experiences in similar scenarios.Key Points:Property Location: Cahokia HeightsPurchase Price: $17,000Rental Income: Approximately $1,500/month via Section 8Condition of Property: Updated plumbing, roof is in good shape, needs AC unit, paint, flooring and cabinets and counter topI'm considering reaching out to private lenders but would like to gather opinions on:Feasibility of securing a mortgage for a low-cost property.Attractiveness of this deal to private lenders.Any creative financing strategies that could be applicable here.Legal and tax implications I should be aware of.Potential risks and how to mitigate them effectively.Any advice, suggestions, or contacts in the private lending space would be immensely helpful.

How would you mitigate the risk?

And there are certainly things I can do to mitigate the risk.

What is the best way to utilize this HELOC to grow my real estate portfolio and mitigate the risks of borrowing a large sum and not pay it back or worse consequences.

I look forward to continuing to learn from the BiggerPockets community as I navigate my real estate investing journey.I’ve had some success on the eastern shore of Maryland, though even that market has started to frankly become expensive, there are still pockets of potential growth both rent & appreciation, thoigh it’s becoming harder to find, also there is a massive rental shortage out there, a county I just put a property contract on, literally has 3 properties for rent right now, but it does make rental comps quite difficult, outside of that I’ve started looking a little more into western Md and some southern pa markets but still trying to get a feel for them, overall I think in this market places that are affordableish and have some draw will do well with the continued wfh + affordability crisis but keep in mind while I think the eastern shore is actually fairly safe market for the most part a lot of rural areas definitely have boom bust potential and in theory more risk than dc metro, though the low price points do by definition tend to mitigate some of those risks. 

@Danielle Daly does this extremely well in Denver, CO and I'm sure has a few golden nuggets on how to mitigate a few of the cons I mentioned by being a very good operator. 

It emphasized the need for flexibility in project timelines and the importance of maintaining healthy profit margins to mitigate challenges.

It emphasized the need for flexibility in project timelines and the importance of maintaining healthy profit margins to mitigate challenges.