You could put some of your money into the property so you have some skin in the game.

Recommend using the $5000 ( skin in the game) as a down payment on a lease option or rent to buy deal that you analyze will bring a positive cash flow after all cost and expenses to get your first rental home under contract.

We have a lot of out of state investors in Tucson scooping up the best deals quickly, so it's a matter of being ready to close on the first deal that makes sense to you before somebody else finds it.Lenders need you to have some sort of skin in the game be it cash in the form of a down-payment, your high credit score in the case of an FHA loan, or other assets in the form of cross collateralization or a HELOC.

That will keep some skin in the game in case they bail on you.Maybe do month-to-month with your next tenant to give you flexibility on when you want to move. 

most private lenders would go to about 75% of the purchase price the other option is to see if you can find a seller willing to hold a note for a portion of the last 25% (maybe 10 to 15%) and you can come up with the difference but most lenders want you to have some skin in the game as well 

I feel like its fairly simple--spray the ceiling w/ some water and scrape down the texture. then skim where you need to and paint it flatI ask bc I've gotten 4 quotes:-$500 to scrape and skim if needed-$400 to scrape and up to $300 to finish/skim-$1750 to scrape and skim 2 coates-$1375 to scrape and skim Such a huge gap. is there enough to mess up here that i'd need to pay over $700 for 865' of ceiling to scrape and skim?

He wants me to have skin in the game, so I've agreed to invest 25% of both the purchase price and rehab costs.

Lots of nicer houses, some of which are next to houses that I can't believe are still standing, and those neighborhoods are... interesting and full of... texture.

I was hoping to get 100% financing and get my down payment back at closing to move into the next transaction that I was looking at, but they insisted I keep my skin in the game.

If you found an investor to fund the DP and you got the loan (if you found a bank to do that since you have no skin in the game), then the investor would want at least 80% of the equity, more likely 90%.