Quote from @Dennis Knapp: they got ahold of me on fb through one of my groups and claim to be a direct lender. they seem to good to be true.

Seems like there wasn't that much room from the start.

It seems that having 5 units sends all the lenders into a frenzy as they prefer to loan on 4.

After debating local vs. or OOS, it seems like prudent advice to try to start locally with long term MF in so cal. 

In working on construction loan financing, the lender informed me I'll need to unencumber that portion of the property (makes sense) before closing on the construction loan.I understand there to be two methods generally speaking: refinancing my mortgage and removing that portion of the property in the process OR attaining a partial release from the lender to remove that land.I *strongly* want to avoid refinancing as I have an amazing rate, but partial releases seem complex and also require a survey.

Scranton seemed to slightly cash flow but the rent in those other areas did not seem to support the investment.Thank you Robert for your information, it's nice to hear that you didn't had a bad experience with Scranton.

My husband and I (ok...my husband) are pretty handy, so we aren't afraid of doing a lot of work ourselves, and I know dealing Iowa winters will mean we need to take some precautionary measures, but it seems like low cost of entry for investing (we just got our first SFH this fall)

While the circumstances may seem entertaining, the reality is this is not a laughing matter.

From the local Phoenix are folks it seems like LTR is the route to go due to competition.

Since you have bought a foreclosure before, at least you have experience with the liens and the process, but you won't get a final tally of the liens unless you can get your title company to run soft title search for these things in advance.Closing on a foreclosure anywhere in Brooklyn seems like a nightmare to me from an operational end.