I am a current customer with Flagstar Bank and I am applying to refinance my primary residence.My FICO mortgage scores are 632 , 623, 590.

One tip I can give that I liked about my rental properties is to have them located in the same/similar area...preferable close to your primary residence.

Cash, traditional financing, something else?

I've always had interest in RE from a distance and with the uncertainty in my primary field, the interest is increasing.I'd appreciate any thoughts from the BP community. 

View report*This link comes directly from our calculators, based on information input by the member who posted.Need 101k down, I have 20k, fully rented now and its 3 min from my primary residence.

This would be my first purchase and my primary home.

focus on your career/work/training/primary income and also (if applicable to you), take stock on any bad spending habits.  

I am debt free outside of my primary home, and am very much of a DIY person, and can pretty much build a house from the ground up. 

I use Nextdoor in my primary residence neighborhood and I love it.

The reasoning for doing this is I hear that FHA loans and other traditional mortgage loans takes much longer and are given less priority to sellers and I don't want to lose out on any good deals based on waiting for a loan approval.