Lender here, traditional/conventional type.

I max out my traditional TSP (due to my tax bracket it makes sense) every year and also invest in real estate.  

Rusty’s insights are guaranteed to generate questions you will want to ask him during the Q&A session.This is a must attend new year event for all CREIA members.Rusty Pulliam continues the tradition of creativity and vision started by his father, Winston.

Rusty’s insights are guaranteed to generate questions you will want to ask him during the Q&A session.This is a must attend new year event for all CREIA members.Rusty Pulliam continues the tradition of creativity and vision started by his father, Winston.

For FHA loans, down payment of 3.5 percent is required, which is far less than the traditional down payment of 20 percent.

If the gridwork can handle the weight, substitute traditional tiles with painted drywall ones for less attention.

I would also add that if you are using any type of traditional financing for these properties your lender will most likely require a builder's risk policy at minimum.

If you were truly intending to owner occupy and are in danger of losing the deal because you lost your cash down to secure traditional financing, then private financing or going back to the seller to change the contract to NOO are your only options I can see based on the info provided.

If you have challenges getting a traditional loan - find a hard money lender. 

But a person that can't get their own credit through traditional means for this is probably not a secure enough risk for you to loan them money at *only* 8%.You would be much better off loaning that money out on actual projects where you can get security/collateral in the form of hard assets than in postcards, phone lines and bandit signs.Run, don't walk.