You have a 20 percent down payment, and cash for closing costs: Get conventional loan from a banking institution.
You have 20 percent down payment, and cash for closing costs. However, your credit rating is not that great. Go to a private lender and pay a little higher interest rate.
You have less than a 20 percent down payment.
- Get an Adjustable Mortgage Rate (ARM) loan (with low interest rate) to cover your down payment.
- Get Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) to insure your down payment.
- Contact a private mortgage lender that provides 100 percent and even 125 percent financing at a higher interest rate.
You do not have a 20 percent down payment and your credit rating is poor: Ask for seller financing. You don’t have to qualify. You may get market interest rates and better terms if

the seller is highly motivated.
You do not have a 20 percent down payment, your credit rating is poor, and currently you are not in a position to buy. However, you expect to be in good shape financially in a few years. Ask for the lease/buy option.

Conventional Methods of Financing

Home mortgage loans
Fixed rate home mortgage loans
Adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) loans
Home equity lines of credit
Refinancing
Bad credit loans

Creative financing methods

Creative financing techniques include:

125 financing if you need some additional funds for home repair and improvement
minimum or no down payment financing of home purchase
seller financing (no credit checking, low paperwork, possibly lower interest rate)
lease-buy option if you are short of funds

Your borrowing strategy

Every buyer has a different sets of needs for financing. Your borrowing strategy will depend on whether:

you are buying a new, upgraded, or fixer type of property;
you will hold or flip the foreclosure property
your credit rating allows you to get loans directly from the "prime" lenders or "sub prime" lenders;
you need the funds for purchase, repair and maintenance, upgrade or remodel the foreclosure home
you need the loan for long term (30 years), medium-term (15 years), or short-term (only a few months)

Strengthen Your Hand: Be A Cash Buyer!

You can obtain better deals by being a cash buyer. Sellers will be more willing to give discounts to cash buyers than those who do not have their loans pre-approved yet. Time is money for sellers as well.

Stay in pre-approved status if you plan to do the fixer-upper business on a part-time or full-time basis. Getting pre-approval letters from lenders is easy. You may contact local or online lenders to get such a letter in a matter of days.

Stay pre-approved all the time if you wish to flip properties
Get seller financing if you wish to hold the property for income.

Sellers of old houses have sizable equity in their properties. By providing you seller financing:

they simply turn their equity into cash; and
they provide you with something that they don’t use. They probably don’t need that cash for any other reason.

Consider FHA loans

Before you approach lenders for buying a property, get some information on FHA (Federal Housing Authority) loans to know to take advantage of reducing your down payment and better terms with the lenders. FHA loans carry the insurance protection of the U.S. Government. That’s why lenders can give you better terms upon obtaining such insurance: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development