@Steve Vaughan  I think the reason they do is for some reason they believe what they hear that the way to buy rental real estate when you have no money.. is to wholesale first get some money then buy rentals.when in fact wholesaling or buying and selling deals quickly in any volume takes a lot of skill.. significant marketing capital.. and most of the time they are breaking the real estate laws.And you have all sorts of HOW TO trainers selling their boot camps and of course they lead with you too can get rich with NON of your own money..theoreticaly that's true.. but not really reality in the real world..not to mention some areas simply do not have enough distressed real estate to make it viable at all.other areas like urban cores and cities that have seen hard times much easier to at least snag low value assets no one wants.. much of this is done is rough areas.Granted there are always hoarder houses and other fixer types in the nicer areas but its uber competitive for them.. and generally there is not enough profit in them to feed all the mouths.the wholesaler the buyer the buyer having to use hard money the contractor sales cost etc.. that in my mind is why you see so many post about HEY wholesalers don't know what they are doing..

Do you know if your client qualifies for conventional financing?

Any and all help in how to still qualify for future small loans would be appreciated. 

Hope this makes sense.It allows the investor to qualify easier for future loans

Transferrable skills (nursing, waiting as in food service, carpentry, and all kinds of other skills) can also be a ticket into the cruising world either full or part time. 

Bryan,Here are the 3 main options to consider:1) Custodial self-directed IRA, lower upfront cost but watch out for transaction and asset based fees, have to go through custodian for every transaction, might be inconvenient for certain investments. 2) Checkbook IRA (aka Checkbook IRA), eliminate transaction fees, higher upfront cost because of special purpose LLC, but long term will provide savings and most importantly a convenience of having checkbook control over your retirement assets. 3) Truly self-directed Solo 401k, requires self-employment activity or small business, the best option if you qualify.

And, we can't qualify for a conventional loan until later this summer due to our past mistakes...

Until a applicant reaches my minimum threshold (the score being only one factor) they do not qualify.

Also, the better parts of North Linden are where a lot of skilled tradespeople live, so its a great community to get involved with beyond just as a landlord.  

You can only have 1 FHA loan at a time unless you have a qualified life event and 15% equity in the property