By other ways I mean outside of the traditional 25% down mortgages or commercial loans.

I'm also originally from Minnesota, but moved West to escape the snow.

More snow for us tomorrow, so probably headed your way, too.If your showings are consistent with similar properties, there's probably not much you can do.

As her brother, she can (in most cases) invest with you while keeping the money inside her IRA.If her financial advisor is telling her she cannot do these things, then she needs to find a new financial advisor who understands how to invest in traditional investments (stocks, bonds, or mutual funds) as well as alternative investments such as real estate, private notes, tax liens, etc.

I'm only familiar with traditional buying methods (one of the areas of my investing I want to iimprove on).

You'd be surprised how many areas allow for rur dev loans.Also, I believe that some traditional conventional loans allow less than 20% and then require PMI.

I spoke with a traditional lender and they said they would Refinance the loan after a 6 month seasoning period up to 80% of ARV as long as there was no cash-out.With this strategy I feel like it's possible to purchase a property with zero money out of my pocket and possibly even get the refi with no money out of my pocket.These are numbers completely pulled out of no where for the example below:$50,000 Purchase$20,000 Repairs------------$70,000 Total$70,000+685 = $70,685+4% = $73,512.40 (Total Hard Money Loan)ARV would need to be $105,000 in this situation.$105,000 x 70% = $73,500I would need to come to the table with $12.408 Months of holding costs would come out of pocket.

I'd say 'monetizing something where traditional methods aren't or can't.'

I use this to make it simple for the seller and sometimes because I want to negotiate with lien holders and get the benefit of that negotiation.Just as often the seller takes care of back taxes etc. but of course it is all handled at the settlement table so the seller doesn't come out of pocket it is just paid from his proceeds from the sale.Yes I take it to a title company and do a traditional settlement.

If you don't know their clientele say hello no; 'cause you/re gonna need your product rain, sleet, hail, snow!