Combined with the other forums and podcasts out there you can spend a few weeks getting familiar with all this to make a good decision.But the short answer to you question is no - I would not buy this deal for $150,000 in order to run a mobile home park.  

Long story short, they accepted my offer, but i waited close to a year to try to have the hoarder vacate the property before i closed.....Came to the point where he wasnt doing anything to vacate the property and i just said screw it, and cancelled my contract.

The short version is I came up in the construction industry and moved into an administrative position in my mid 20's.

He is invaluable advice, free resources and payed.http://www.themichaelblank.com/session42/ this is great podcast to get started and allows you to visualize attaining something in a relatively short time period.

If you are planning on just loaning the money for a very short time and that Annual rate is around 200% you should probably really dig into the laws around that.

My best friend has been waiting on a condo that's is a short sale .

@Mike BarryYes, your income will be lower both for tax purposes and for loan underwriting purposes.Lenders look at your ability to pay back the loan, and stashing money into your retirement account does limit the money available for repaying the loan.That said, declining to fund your 401k just to qualify for a loan may be short-sighted.

Moreover, if you're planning to use the 2nd unit as an STR (short term vacation rental), AirBnB and similar, you'll likely need to get a license from the city allowing that.

Short of crowdfunding does anyone have any suggestions on how I can approach potential investors about helping me come up with this down payment ?

Our short term goal is to buy our first property within the next year.