I've researched enough to find Hard money lenders who only require a 10% dp versus the traditional 20% for conventional.

Some of my other interests include: traditional clay sculpting, science, amateur prop building, literature and writing, crafts of all sorts, animal fostering, hiking, horror movies, music, laughing (a lot), yoga and plant-based cooking.

It sounds like a genius way to cut out the bank and get more affordable lending then hard money but a little higher then traditional.

Traditional Financing - Under your name by putting X% down based on one's credit etc.2.

Hello All,I purchased my first investment property using traditional financing (Bank of America).

Amaf,It will be challenging to qualify for traditional financing on a 100% vacant building.Originally posted by @Amaf J.

@Eric ClifftI love the fact that you are methodically & creatively designing your marketing strategy.Direct mail marketing traditional results dictate that response rates should be higher on a piece addressed to a specific person vs. anything that may resemble junk mail like a general mailing to "resident" or equivalent.However, higher response rates do not necessarily=higher profit.Run a split test on both methods to determine the profitability of each lead, not just response rate.  

After you do a couple of those, you will have the equity you need to target rehab-and-keep tax sale properties, or the equity for a more traditional real estate purchase.

The traditional way to defer tax and depreciation recapture when selling and buying investment real estate (the buy and hold side) is to utilize the 1031 exchange. 

I would use that money in addition to traditional media for things like commissions, buying out leases ( this is where you offer to pay someones lease off if they move now), promotional gifts, you can buy a flat screen tv for pennies,  paying for moving costs, etc.