Unsecured line of credit - follow up

[Taft Love]

A week or so ago, I posted about my financial situation and asked a slew of questions. I thought it might make sense to follow up after visiting the bank.

In the last post, I mentioned that Episode 239 gave me the idea of using an unsecured line of credit (or multiple lines) to get started in real estate investing. I went to a couple of local banks in Eastern Washington this week, but was disappointed by the conversations I had (though not detered!).

The largest line of credit for which I qualified, according to the bank was $15k, which is about 20% of one of the two credit cards I have. While I didn't expect to qualify for $75k I requested (anchor the negotiation to a big number....right?), I thought half of that was reasonable. Apparently income is far less important than liquidity and stability. Working for startups and living around the world for the past couple of years makes me appear risky, it seems.

This seems to confirm my suspicion that there are four ways to get started:
1) traditional finanacing (20% down)
2) hard money (10-20% down and expensive)
3) cash (if you have it)
4) owner financing (if you get really lucky)

This leads to my question. Are there options that I'm missing? Are there creative (and realistic) options that I'm not considering as I think about how to get going?

-Taft