Without a track record, they tend to want a big down payment and have fairly aggressive terms.I suspect, as with any business or finance relationship, if you have a proven track record, you can structure better deals.As far as approaching private lenders, I would start by Googling.

I struggle with talking to people, and having finess while maintaining confidence.

Here is my first thought, remember I am fairly new at this and am not 100% if this would work or even if this deal would be possible to find.I was thinking, find a seller that would be willing to do seller financing and line up a private investor for a 20 - 35% down payment.

The reason I ask is it occurs to me that a possible strategy to get over the hump could be to pay yourself (ie: the entity) rent at fair market value.

Assuming you have a clause in your lease requiring the tenant to maintain adequate heat in the apartment (usually 50 degrees F), and that the lease also states she/he is responsible for any damages resulting from failure to do so, to collect reimbursement you still might need documentation showing that the pipe burst due to freezing, and that it wasn't an improperly soldered fitting that failed on the day she notified you.

Our monthly rent is fairly high right now and by purchasing a property I believe we could significantly save more for future investing.

I'm trying to get a rough idea what is a fair price to have someone remove the old baseboard heaters & install new electrical baseboard heaters.

Thanks for all the help.I have been looking around and Dayton Ohio looks fairly decent as well.

If you want a fairly turnkey property, expect to pay at least 90k for a nice duplex that could give you a reasonable amount of cash flow.

I'm fairly new myself but I would say that the first step in being a successful Real Estate Investor is to network with people who are actually doing what you want to do.