You either need to find a way to make and save more money or look into owner occupied investment strategies like a live in flip or house hack.

The work around was a Mexican bank was the owner and lease it to the foreigner.

I am cold calling owners and they are just laughing at me with my offers at 8% caps. 

Would love to hear form some Multi-Family owners/operators in these markets about pros/cons and specifically neighborhoods to avoid.My wife and I have been to Columbia SC many times and, while we have never been to Little Rock Arkansas, we plan on going in Late March! 

In many cases, it weakens the lender's position as they did not underwrite the buyer and an owner-occupant tends to pay better than non-owner-occupants.

When relying on LIHTC to make the deal pencil, yes developers wait BUT only if they have the resources to wait and only if the property owner is willing to not close on the property until the project is fully funded.

His "owner occupied" loan application is ok if he intended to live there when he applied.

The only time we will not make an offer site unseen is if we run into a situation where an owner or a realtor won't accept site unseen offers. 

If you have a partner and are a minority owner or LP in the deal, you may find something, but that doesnt sound to be the case from your description.

Many people on Sec 8 but also many market rate tenants/home owners.