At that point we hired an independent appraiser and the numbers came back good and the hard money lender agreed to use them.  

We are all about saving money on flips and renovation efforts.  

I can tell you what we actually did.  

How much money do you have for a down payment for a new rental and how much can you borrow? 

Not 2 for the same reasons @Donald Hatter mentioned actually!

I'm going to reiterate what's already been mentioned above, but I'm going to actually give you examples of why it's relevant to you to find a U.S. tax professional.1 - You're going to need to file U.S. taxes once you have property down here, there's federal filings, state filings, and sometimes local filings too2 - Tons of tax treaties between the U.S. and Canada that are easy to miss and can cost you a lot of money (important one with rentals - effectively connected income - if the professional you talk to doesn't know what this is, run away)3 - The amount of days you spend in the U.S. needs to be tracked and if you go over a threshold, all of your worldwide income could be taxable by the U.S.4 - Selling real property means up to 15% of your sales proceeds might not be available to you for years (FIRPTA)5 - Lots of nuance at the state and local levels, which both want to take as much money from you as possibleMain takeaway here is that you should find a U.S. based tax person.

You will need money to put down on the property.  

Halethorpe/Elkridge/Glen Burnie are good as well but your money definitely won't go quite as far as Dundalk and Essex as everyone has hinted about here.  

Explore my personal favorites, Set For Life by Scott Trench or The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey, for invaluable financial insights.3.

Some will dangle out-of-market offers in a term sheet, then ask for substantial sums of money right away.