One option is to fix it up & then borrow on the equity sort of BRRR style.

But we basically followed David Greene's advice for finding a realtor in Long-Distance Real Estate Investing.Here's a summary of what we were looking for:* An agent who has experience being a landlord/investor and so already shares our perspective (looks for opportunity rather than curb appeal)* An agent who knows the Alexandria area well* An agent who doesn't mind showing us many houses and writing a bunch of lower offers* An agent who doesn't mind sharing their opinion about a property being wrong for us so we can move on to the next oneThere are many great meetups here.

You could use an FHA or conventional low down payment option since it will be your primary. 

The best ways to find this are 1) See if your local NARPM (National Association of Residential Property Managers) has an attorney affiliate member. 2) Ask your local landlord and investor club members who they use. 3) If 1 and 2 are not options, go to your local court case lookup site and pull the cases for the third week of the month.

Understand different options we have in RE market 2. 

(The high bidder UW must have used in some part more favorable UW assumptions - either higher rental income or lower expenses.)3.

Owner-occupants often get lower down payment options and better rates.As far as whether to take or utilize a HELOC for the acquisition my advice is a firm NO. 

@John Doyle No.Passive income is taxed at a lower rate.It does not qualify for use making 401k or SEP IRA contributions, nor would it make sense to change it from passive income to higher taxed earned income that would qualify to be used as plan contributions.

In todays world there are much better options for the application process but there are LOTS of background/credit check companies on the internet that provide different services and have different pricing. 

@Landon Harless Happy to chat if you'd ever like to discuss options in Myrtle Beach and Conway.