If you want to qualify for the lowest interest rate and borrow the amount of money you need to clean your credit record with good scores is really a must.

Why not consider using some of that skill to market yourself as a real estate investor?

If the math of the fair market rents justifies renting your own place, then get yourself and house #1 property qualified with your local housing authority before you go and dive into house #2.

I always put 20% down anyways so it actually makes me kinda happy because now I know that there will be less people that will qualify so it'll make my offers stronger.

By the time I'm down to showing I know I've got a qualified (financially) prospect who has a specific interest in the size of house, and neighborhood.all cash

and in that case how can the llc qualify for the mortgage since it doesn't have any income on it's own initially?

In my opinion, finance at least teaches you the bigger skill sets that can be applied to your RE career.

The rest were no shows.I've had far more qualified-sounding leads from my ad in the local paper than from Craigslist.

If it weren't for the loan size or amount down, I wouldn't have an issue qualifying.

If you're doing it yourself, do you have the time/energy/skills to do it successfully?