He wants to carry the paper on $400k.

Let's do a calculation for 1 item in a capex budget.

Not knowing these items will put you in a great position to FAIL.Once you have a decent handle on your market conditions and rehab number calculations (there are plenty of threads here that I and others have gone into full detail on how to do), then you can comfortably start looking for private money lenders.

If you keep the property from health and safety violations, manage like a business, and carry good insurance you are best off vesting in a single entity Revocable Living Trust- this gives you stand alone one property protection and saves a boat load of money.

As an agent, you can carry your commission as a second, sometimes.

An additional question: In the contract we recieved, it states: "Seller will provide estoppel certificates as a required delivery item prior to the close of escrow and estoppels will not be subject to any buyer contingency approval.

My vision for these meetings are that we have an agenda and walk away with action items.

So in that case you'd be better off going conventional with 85% LTV for a 2-unit and 80% for a 3-4.Lastly you could look at a DSCR (debt service coverage ratio) program, however those are intended for pure investment and carry higher rates, costs and longer closing times.Hope this all helps.

The piece of information that you've stated, Zoning as R2 for Duplex, is the best item to help answer your questions.

Although they can do the appraisal you will still have to show your capacity to carry a line of credit through qualifying which they will look at your income and job type to assess the risk of creating a line of credit secured against the home. hope this helps.