I guess I was thinking that I would need to have the money in my business's possession somehow before making offers or to have a pre-approval letter indicating my ability to purchase the property, etc..

If some major expenses are in the near future the hoa needs to have the ability to pay them or their will be a special assessment that you will have to pay out of your cash flow.

Churchill Mortgage is a nationally known company that does this (thanks to Dave Ramsey) and I have found that a number of local and regional banks in my area also have the ability to do this.Good luck in the process, Justin!

Syndications offers you the ability to participate in deals that offer the same tax and appreciation upside that comes with real estate, yet you don't have to directly manage it.

I use both as a RE investor between commercial and residential as both can be used on 1-4 unit properties (non owner/investment occupancy).The pro's of commercial/portfolio financing from local credit unions and community banks are that you can:- talk to a local banker/lender who is interested in building a relationship with you over time and is flexible to make a loan as long as its financially prudent and you show a track record- ability to build a track record with- less documentation scrutiny than a fannie/freddie conventional loan which is more ridged because it needs to be sold to the secondary market so all boxes must be checked to do so (otherwise the loan is unsellable or undeliverable)- is cashflow based via debt coverage ratio or DCR method of qualification (Net operating income / debt service) - can fund to LLC's, entities, and businesses with personal guarantee (PG) usually- can do unique loans like cross collateral or blanket notes across an entire portfolio, can do rehab/construction + permanent financing into one (one time close products), can do soft liens and releasable upon progress on your projects so you can leverage equity with temporarily encumbrances, unique disbursements on credit facilities,etc Hope that helped compare the cash out options.

For instance, my wife is a degreed Interior Designer with tons of experience in renovations.

I can’t say I’ve perfected the brrrr method yet but I’m working on it.My question is how many deals do I have to do with my own cash or how many years do I need to be investing for private money lenders to trust me and my abilities so I can start doing apartment deals?

Typically less is more since it removes the rejected tenants ability to try and counter your decision.

I'm confident in my ability to run numbers.  

Plus, as stated before, my current company will pay for me to get the degree, as long as I finish within the next 2 years.