If you're purchasing a single family home you can use traditional financing like you probably did on your house or you can do a commercial loan.

He works with us often here in Chicago, but can service loans across the country!

Using the 203k or now the HomeStyle loan you can buy a fixer upper and get all the money to renovate. 

Yes there are alternatives for both beige and 30 year loans for no US borrowers.

You are going to want to find some good wholesalers in your area that can help you find distressed properties, or network/cold call some home/duplex owners in your area to see if you can find a discounted distressed properties, use the heloc to get hard money loan.  

However, the ex wife name remains on the loan itself.

Woohoo! My offer got accepted for an investment property in Pennsylvania. Next up is a huge financial hit: closing costs. I just signed a bunch of disclosures from my lender and after reading them it has me thinking, ...

Even after one year, that property may provide thousands of dollars worth of appreciation, you will pay down your loan and build some equity, and you can depreciate the asset. 

(Keep in mind there are Fannie Mae maximums on the number of personal loans you can have - which is 10 per person.

You could also use a Fannie May Home style renovation loan which a conventional loan and require 5% down vs.