I BELIEVE you have to make massive improvements, like 300% of purchase price, to qualify. 

Here is the quick pros and cons on both.Gloucester: Pros -  Good tenant pool, strong schools, most houses have public utilities, consider the more desirable area of Sicklerville by the local populationCons - higher taxes, pulling permits takes the full ~21 days, higher home prices, overall thinner marginsWinslow:Pros - Lower cost houses, rental friendly township, strong demand for rentals, slowly up & coming in certain neighborhoods, lower taxes, overall fatter marginsCons - Lots of C and D neighborhoods and lackluster tenant pools, poor schools, the more east you get the more well/oil/septic you find, considered less desirable area of Sicklerville by the local populationBy the numbers both GC and WT have similar rent rolls only off by $100 to $200 depending on the house type, therefore Winslow you will net more but have a slightly riskier houseAgain this is just a general view, you'll want to look at each sub-division as there are massive swings within each twp (Ex: Brittany Woods compared to Cobblestone in GC)

I am 99% ignorant of real estate investing so I welcome advice and insight, especially on the massively expensive market in the DC/Baltimore corridor.

Since I would like to migrate to the Seattle Washington area next, that is probably the location I will be looking at doing this.However, I know there must be deals in this area which have not suffered from the massive inflation which the city has which might still give me the opportunity to do what I would like to.

I've done the math and it seems we could with certanty keep up this massive savings rate up if we bought the condo cash and lived in it and could buy the duplex cash in probably 4 years after by selling the condo.Would it make sense to buy the condo for that short of a time just to up and sell in in 2 to 4 years for the duplex I am not counting on much appreciation it is a condo. there may be some because of the area however.But this seems to be the only way we can keep our savings rate up. even if we leveraged the duplex we still would be worse off savings wise.

It was massive loss that people can't understand today. 

Very intense and massive bureaucracy.

Think you're confusing a local downturn with some massive nationwide collapse (re: 2008). 

At least 500 have already been massively ripped off..

I'll also state based on what you just posted that if the bank finds you "making a relationship" with their asset manager, they'd probably find a new asset manager and historically, based on my 25 years, an asset manager isn't going to jeopardize being spoon fed massive amounts of business just to appease one investor that doesn't want to wait like the rest of the market does.  ...and I have no problem sitting on the sidelines watching that unfold.