An alternative would be to raise some Joint Venture partners.  

@Hersh M.Unfortunately that graph wouldn't prove anything other than the fact that Bigger Pockets has become more popular due to any number of factors - potentially including an increased interest in real estate investing from the general public, but also from Bigger Pockets expanding their content, ranking higher on google searches, word of mouth, etc.

I just became a member of bigger pockets and hope that this can be an outlet to connect to individuals who could provide strategies for locating sources of alternative financing for people like myself, who are just starting out.As stated above I am still young and interested in buy and holds that yield a consistent monthly cash flow.

Your other alternative is to speak with a mortgage broker and let them do this legwork for you.

@Chris Seveney  they are quite popular in PDX we call them ADU  accessory dwelling units and usually are above the garage...

 @James Warren:Juwai & Fang.com are def the most popular ones that I know, but there are alsohttp://www.beimeigoufang.com, and http://www.meifang8.com.In my opinion, none of them have done as good a job as zillow or realtor.com, in terms of how easy it is to navigate their sites and how comprehensive of listings they have.

It will take me  a few hours and a bunch of edits to tell my story, so here is a short Quick reply, i started real estate straight out of high school,in the toughest parts of south central Los Angeles no car no money i will say this if you learn how to communicate and talk to sellers in a humble sincere effective manner you will be surprised what a seller will be willing to do to sell their home to you, in my experience it is not who offers the most money it is who makes the seller feel more comfortable, im refereeing to FSBO's, reo's etc was not popular back then but foreclosures were on fire, i was pretty good at talking and adapting to homeowners in distressed i'm very big on what i call the "like factor" so i was able to arrange terms that some of you would not believe me if i wrote it in a post, my point is yes you can buy with zero money (if you have the knowledge and know how) it is several ways to get a deal done when you have no money.

Teddy, The problem is partly high expectations that are rarely met and the fact that few people know of any real alternative.

I've not tried alternative finance. 

Going forward, we will alternate the meetups to so that one week is on Saturday - the next week is on Thursday - and so forth - so two meetups on a Thursday and two meetups on a Saturday - this way members can still attend when it's most convenient.