Good credit, especially when you can go OO and take advantage of the extremely low interest rates will be HUGE.#2 - A strong W2.

So 80% is on the low side. $400 to renew an existing tenant seems pretty high to me.

The economy is stagnant, and support stuff such as property management and handyman are not readily available on top of low quality tenants that comes with high churn.

We absolutely love Austin and we feel like the opportunities in real estate, if done carefully and correctly, could be pretty lucrative (not to mention fun).We're contemplating downsizing our current home and using a large portion of the profits to start investing.

I have $40k in savings and very low living expenses.

If someone offers 100% financing in the debt area (esp at a low rate) and esp if newbies are welcome its probable something is wrong.

My question to all of you is what would be the most effective way to find leads in a relatively low-volume market such as this?

With low financials for a first deal; your pitch, passion, and niche will be more important than trying to meet straight numbers.

In my mind, there are two big barriers to doing off-market:1) At low volume, there isn't justification for me to do my own marketing. 

I'm wondering if anyone knows of a way to obtain financing with low money down (< 10%) that is not "owner occupied?"