A Lot of agents 1) don’t really know all the intricacies/procedures/rules/strategies to do a short sale and 2) don’t want to do all the extra work involved in one, for no extra fees.Attorneys are not great for negotiating/processing shorts sales…they often slow the process down are not needed.If it comes to that point, have a talk with your agent, and their broker, about switching to an agent with short sale experience.You would need to show a financial hardship though….as in you can Not afford to pay the negative cash flow indefinitely. 

Credit locks are pretty worthless, do it to slow down future problems.

Have you scheduled a cleaner to come in and do a deep clean before you start renting.

I'm looking to connect with an investor-friendly broker who has deep knowledge of the area and can identify cash flow-positive investments that yield solid returns.

Actually start in the deep end and begin working on the projects (flips, brokering, wholesales, etc.) that you're wanting to do and you'll notice that you'll find your team along the way.

We want to delve deep into one city first before moving to another.  

Even worse, they still haven't syndicated the listing on crucial platforms like realtor.com and Redfin.The process for reviewing applications is painfully slow.

It was admittedly somewhat of a frustrating process and I got the impression that lenders purposefully make it challenging to remove and do the bare minimum to meet the federal guidelines for removal (very slow responses to PMI removal inquiries requiring multiple follow ups, incomplete or missing information on the process of removal or borrower rights, calculating LTV incorrectly, etc, etc).

Well, if ARV is $140k and you're all in at $140k, it doesn't sound like you're too deep under water.

I'd first slow down and develop some sort of subject matter expertise.