I wanted to share a bit about my situation and get some advice from those more experienced in real estate.My wife and I live in Irvine, Orange County, as renters.

. - that might be a situation where you would want to work with a contractor directly because you would have lots of different options with widely varying costs.

I'm also considering Halethorpe because it's a good commuter location.Some people really like supporting the city in which case , northeast Baltimore would seem to the best place to buy a single family, in my opinion given the taxes situation and given that none of those areas are walkable I’d rather just be in the county and pay Lower taxes, and it’s not like northeast Baltimore is much that much cheaper than Baltimore county, hathorpe is mixed, arbutus is nice, I hate the housing stock there, would rather be in Catonsville if I was considering western Baltimore county. 

I don't know CLE per se (I'm based in STL), but I know the financial side of gut rehabs in urban centers of big cities.

Just know others are in the same situation--I'm stressing about one of mine too!! 

Look at me taking charge of my financial future!

I don’t think that is the person this sort of situation is meant for.

In our still relatively limited experience, seller financiers are usually looking to get a higher asking price in exchange for the favor of the private loan. 

The real estate investing industry uses "Classes" to rank property performance risk, but there's NO agreed upon industry model:(Here's what we use for our Metro Detroit market:Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

I don't know your living situation but if your paying x,xxx for rent or a mortgage and instead by living in one side and renting out the other you will be paying y,yyy instead and y is less then x that's great, especially if you can rent out your primary residence and make income there too.