I, too find funding to be one of my main hurdles.

Here are my hurdles:- I can only have 1 FHA loan with less than 20% down.

I've never put on a new roof without a deposit.I don't think its an unreasonable request from the contractorI would definitely verify references.

If you have a good credit history and 25% cash down and sufficient income obtaining conventional financing for up to four houses is actually very easy.If you don't have the above requirements, then you scramble to put together any deal until you have proven success and proven track record with which to attract private financing partners.Hard money borrowing eliminates many otherwise profitable transactions since the profitability needs to be much higher to pay the hard money rates.The hurdle with conventional financing is about 5%.  

Who knows how reliable they were before, but if they've gotten comfortable living rent free, my guess is you'll have some hurdles with them, and perhaps some demands for repairs.

However, the takeaway from that experience was frequently, they are such cash cows that the owners demand unreasonable prices for them.  

Something that would get my attention is a lending firm that would offer a low, fixed interest loan to an investor backed by property without having to go through as many of the hurdles one would have to go through when dealing with a traditional institution.Right now I would like to consolidate about 68k in high interest debt using property as collateral but I don't have the 15-20k in reserves needed to qualify for a HELOC or cash out refinance with a traditional institution.

The next hurdle, is showing the property to your buyers.

Then, do you think it is unreasonable to expect $1/sq ft for rents?

Finding a good tenant is a real hurdle in Baltimore, as far as I can see.The competition is pretty strong here, as well, as many investors are looking for the same thing.Shoshana Shulman