I am in the process of buying a new home. In order to raise the down payment I am selling the home that I co-own with my brother. He is currently incarcerated, and there is a trust (which actually owns his half). The ...

Plus with that zero balance sweep account, all regular deposits and idle funds can sit on your outstanding balance and save you a ton of interest cost as well. 

There has to be a limit though.Ask if you can sit in on a class for free....that can give you an idea of what it is like, if it is appropriate for your experience, get to know some of the other agents, the culture, etc.

I think there are some books on MH lending, don't recall the names of them.

I see local homes sitting on the market for months now as well. 

Otherwise, you'll be stuck making objections so you don't feel guilty sitting on the sidelines.

Once it sits for a few extra days it gets a scarlet letter and folks wonder what's wrong with it before even walking through.

Why don't you sit with the lenders and understand their terms.Are they going to look at your credit (if this is your first time they probably will).What experience do they require?

You can search online for companies in your area that lend that way.But I'm guessing if you talked to the people around you, showed them what real estate investing can do, and offered a good enough return, you could pool money from multiple family and friend sources to make it happen.Most people aren't sitting on tens of thousands of dollars, but most people have 401ks or IRAs and if they trust you, and you are trustworthy, you can teach them how to pull loans on their retirement accounts that don't penalize them, and give you access to more money than you realize you had access to.Probably start there.

I will most likely end up doing a cash out refi, just wanted to make sure I though of every option before I start paying 5% on cash sitting in an account while I'm looking for more properties.