HML traditionaly are for short term lending situations NOT buying rentals.. some have morphed into a rental product.a few others to consider.Visio LendinghomeLendingonethese are legit..who is not legit is usually one off people that advertise on facebook..and other places.. offer rates that are under industry averages.. then hook you for a small application fee that turns into scam money and you never hear from them again.unfortunately real estate is prime ground now for Nigerian prince scam type things.Couple reasons .. the Internet  the huge demand by those that have never bought real estate or a rental entering the market and have no real experience to understand the industry or what is real and not real.

In the age of internet, email, direct mail, face book etc. is this something investors do? 

If I were doing this today, I would offer high speed internet and use of a printer.

No real estate advertisement placed or caused to be placed by a licensee shall be fraudulent, false, deceptive or misleading.(2) When the licensee’s personal name appears in the advertisement, at the very least the licensee’s last name must be used in the manner in which it is registered with the Commission.(3)(a) When advertising on a site on the Internet, the brokerage firm name as required in subsection (1) above shall be placed adjacent to or immediately above or below the point of contact information.

Otherwise you will be gambling. 

For me anyone with a fico below 560 is probably a life long deadbeat, and anyone with no credit file, probably is also a dead beat, but they could have no credit for many reasons other than their lack of credit worthiness, so I assign 25 gamble points to the no credit renter and treat them as equivalent to a 585 fico.

As always, I'm signing into BP to ask another question I can't find a solid answer to anywhere else on the internet.

Real estate investing feels right to me and I want to get involved, so I've been reading a lot of books and internet forums trying to learn more. 

None of this is very expensive to install, but you need internet access to monitor so there is a recurring expense.

For our first deal I just scoured the internet, found the lowest rate out there, and got a conventional mortgage.