You have to find the money somewhere if you want it that badly.

I'm the opposite....I jut plow ahead and get myself into trouble :-)My business strategy is 'paint yourself into a corner and figure a way out'.

Starting as close to where your experience lies as possible will save time money and headaches.

To my knowledge, most flippers use hard money loans as they are often buying distressed properties that will not meet the requirements of a conventional lender.

Do something else/invest the money instead. 

As a real estate investor, it’s crucial that you understand when and how to utilize bonus depreciation and 1031 exchanges in order to lessen your tax burden, keeping more money in your pocket.

He won't get my money!

Giving tons of small amounts of money out to people during covid looked good at the time, but caused all this inflation. 

My loan officer left a message the next day and said we could not use the HELOC for the whole down payment and that we needed to show we are using some of our savings - he said he would be in trouble with the underwriter.

You could start an HVAC company that does installs and/or does trouble shooting when it's peak season.