I don't have private lenders in my family/friends group so I'd have to rely on hard money lenders but I still don't see how that is financially viable at all with the high interest rates and balloon payment after, say, a year.  

I personally wouldn't rely on anything pro-forma.

So you currently have income that you can rely on to get you to you goal of financial independence . 

Originally posted by @Ralph R.:Eli

There are lenders who rely heavily on your last 3 years of returns.

I do know that Cleveland is enjoying an economic revival based on healthcare (Cleveland clinic regional hub), but long-term, I don't know what that will translate into population-wise. 

In this case the builder in my area looking for 15% -20% which translate to 15K-20K addition the total cost. 

I don't want the profitability of our properties to rely on me doing work on them, although I am pretty handy!

I do not have direct access to the mls yet and have been relying primarily on sites such Zillow, trulia, BeenVerified, etc. any advice on telling the difference between a good comp and bad comp without using the mls?

I rely on BP, Clever Investor, Youtube, and Books to teach me about wholesaling and I'm still a newbie.If you have the Clever Investor program, we can support one another on that too!!!