The house I will get is in a lower income area, currently worth $95-100k, and she still owes about $25k on it.

So, if your current rent roll is still on the lower side, it could limit the amount you can borrow right now.However, if you have even a partial track record showing improvements.. say a few of the units are already updated and attracting higher rents.. a lender might take that into consideration when underwriting.

So when I get multiple bids and one is significantly lower, I don't think of them as a deal.

the midwest has lower price points than other areas of the US, sure, but it also comes with its own challenges - for example, very old housing stock, lots of deferred maintenance, and tremendous demand for the best properties."

@Jonathan Bombaci recommend using that amount as a bargaining chip for lower rates.80% of evictions are wash, rinse, repeat. 

There are aggressive lenders out there with lower fees for experienced flippers.  

When you bring in intentionally say 20 million illegal immigrants you lower the wages on lower income people both by their wages and increasing their cost of living thru more competition for resources.  

There's a few different ways to focus on a lower rate such as with house hacking and making the investment your primary residence, requesting a significant closing credit from the sellers for standard rate buy-downs (which I've had great success with recently), or utilizing lenders who offer short term rate lowering solutions such as 2-1 rate buy downs (again, ideally paid for by the sellers).

If you do, perhaps there's something in another market similar but at a lower price point.

I get better investment options and lower expense ratio through my Roth IRA.