As long as you have good credit and debt-to-income ratio, you should be able to purchase several buy and hold properties.Myself and the majority of my clients that buy and hold use a hard money lender (like Sherman Bridge Lending) to fund the purchase and renovations of the property, then refinance out a short time later into a conforming loan.

I wouldn't actually do that because I wouldn't want to lie and burn bridges for the future, but it seems like a weird restriction.

@Kevin HumbrechtYour asking for a bridge loan on a personal property.

The other 40% can be a mix of your own cash, investor cash, mezzanine debt, bridge financing etc etc.

@Jeff Bridges -- that's a great point.

that are keeping it from being worth 1.1 to 1.3For this deal to make any sense I would need to assess whether I could bridge that gap between the $900,000 he wants, which is more than maximum this thing is actually worth right now otherwise it'd be sold already, and the 1.3 homes.

I do structural engineering but mostly bridges and highways but same principles as buildings.

There's no bridges to burn, they're already burnt.You can be direct and let him know he didn't perform and offer to settle for a refund of any and all the fees except interest on the money used.

If the property is large enough, you may be able to get a bridge lender or construction loan from a local bank. 

We have two properties at Camp Creek Parkway near the airport and one off of Cheshire Bridge Rd in the Buckhead area.