Financing a first property for STR

[Account Closed]

I'm looking to purchase my very first property as an investor. I'm super interested in buying a house that is move-in-ready, so I can begin furnishing it and get it right up on Airbnb for listing. 

I have: 

-About $12k reserves

- A few $K available on credit cards

- Almost 700 personal cred score credit. Although, not sure if it matters or not for this

What I don't have:

- Enough biz credit built up to borrow large amounts of money (although...getting there!)

- Definitely don't have enough pull to get a large loan with my personal credit! 

Obviously, I'm looking into hard or private money. 

But is that the right path? Considering my points above, what should I do? I have read every book and article on creative financing and what I gather from it all is....networking. 

Well, dangit. Living in a pandemic makes that pretty hard when all meetings are online! (Anyone that says networking works seamlessly over a Zoom call...must know something I don't!)

Zoom - networking. It's a different beast. So mark that off the list. 

I'm well prepared with my new business. I feel I have all of my ducks in a row, in every aspect.. Do you think I should just reach out to some lenders and see if they'll lend to this newbie at a higher LTV? Because I don't have enough for the remaining LTV.. To be completely honest this funding part...kinda has me up at night. How can I make this happen? Is it possible to happen?

(Might want to mention I live in Southern Cal... Where I plan to begin.)

Kindly appreciate your thoughts and time to read this. Thanks!