pros. In my neighborhood there has been an increase in the number of homes being bought and turned into university student rentals. It has generated a lot of opposition from the neighbors, and a lot of work with the city, but no concrete results in stemming the tide of rental properties.

A couple of my neighbors are interested in taking things into our own hands and forming a group to buy homes that are especially at-risk of becoming student rentals, fixing them up, renting them out to families, and then eventually selling them to a family. We have a variety of professional backgrounds and expertise that would enable us to fix-up and manage the houses, which should reduce overhead costs significantly.

But my question is, how do we get started with buying a home? None of us have enough liquid cash floating around to purchase a home out right. So we would need to get financing. Will a bank provide financing without any collateral beyond the home being financed? We would want to form an LLC to manage the properties - where the LLC won't initially have any assets, can we get a loan at all? Because of the demand for rental housing, I know that we wouldn't have a problem filling the homes, and I believe we will turn a modest profit at the end when we sell them. But we will need financing to get off the ground.

Any suggestions on what is the best way to go about getting financing and what would be required?