Hi @Dave Kay - In my experience if you are getting a traditional residential mortgage, the fact that the building is vacant/occupied/paying/not paying/etc is not that important.

If you want to start that business you are probably going to have to look for more traditional funding. 

I have been able to run all of my properties through traditional lenders, so unfortunately, no.

If you are using hard money you need to budget for the points and fees as well as traditional third party closing fees.Repairs: The money it is going to take you to rehab the property plus an extra 10% of estimated repair costs to account for unexpected repairs.Holdings Costs: Here is where a lot of investors get tripped up.

In fact most investors start out with traditional banks.

Is it possible for me to do seller financing for a year or two until I can refinance to a traditional loan?

Many investors use Summit Title, particularly on non traditional transactions 

Well it sounds like a traditional eviction situation.  

While I have made several traditional investments in real estate in the past, I would like to learn about more creative ways of investing in real estate - such as flipping, buying with little or no money, short term lending, etc.

@Monte Mabry If you are buying a property using traditional lender, then yes.