I’ve been buying properties at auction, usually well below market value, and I’m trying to figure out the best way to scale without tying up all my cash in each property.

I’m NOT looking to do fix-and-flips or major rehabs.

The strategy I’m looking at is basically:

Buy a property significantly below its current as-is value using cash/private/short-term money …refinance based on the appraised value …pay back the acquisition money …keep the property as a rental and repeat.

For example:

Property is worth roughly $200k as-is
Purchase + fees/closing = roughly $125k–$130k all-in
If a lender would refinance at 70–75% of the $200k appraised value, theoretically that could return most or all of the acquisition capital.

Basically BRRRR, except the equity is created by buying at a discount instead of rehabbing the property.

My questions for anyone actually doing this:

Are lenders allowing an immediate refinance based on appraised value, or are you running into 6–12 month seasoning requirements?

Are you using DSCR lenders, local banks, hard/private money, or something else for the takeout loan?

What percentage of as-is value do you try to stay under all-in? I’ve been looking at roughly 60–65%.

Are you able to get essentially all of your acquisition capital back out, or do lenders usually cap the refinance based on your cost basis?

Any lenders/programs specifically good for auction purchases like this?

I’d especially love to hear from anyone doing this without renovations. I’m trying to figure out whether this is realistically scalable or whether the seasoning/cost-basis rules make it harder in practice than it looks on paper.