You also want +20% equity in the property to avoid Private Mortgage Insurance which can be costly.Bill Gulley, maybe he's going for hard money first since it can be much quicker to receive than a conventional mortgage?

When buying a house from a private seller, everyone talks about "putting it under contract" and I understand the general concept.

Since banks will not loan to me for rehabbing I either have a choice of private money or a HELOC and in Michigan HELOC rates are cheaper.

I have been in the background most of the time - listening, learning and privately messaging some of you like @Curt S, Ali B, Sharon V, Brian G, Marco S, Brandon T --And I have been getting a lot of value from this community of friendly, helpful and wonderful professionals.

I had a great discussion with @Brian Gibbons on private money.

I think it's a pretty solid bet that prime will go up here pretty shortly.

Check with mortgage brokers/originators that provide private funding as well

Plus I can bet your HOA won't like vacationers too much.

I've done a lot of cut and pasting Edward Scissorhands-style of many posts on BP that address seller financing, but there are several differing opinions on the topic of whether or not it is necessary to use a mortgage...

So, getting started really means you must have income from some other source that you can use for the qualification process.So, you're really looking at private money (i.e., from someone you personally know) or hard money.