I'm also located in Eastern PA

My best advice is to meet your lenders face-to-face at real estate clubs, conferences, or other professional events.

I witnessed a prime example at a national REI conference recently when a new but solid “cash buyer” proposed a live question to a panel of “experts.”

I also met a few investors who live in Texas at recent real estate conference - the advantage living there there's no state income tax and they're able to make the numbers work even with higher property taxes.

The one place that still imo offers a good combo of being nice, being affordable and having a little upside left imo is the eastern shore of Md, I just bought a flip down there (though it’s pretty hard if not impossible to find great value add even there) but it’s affordable, growing (a lot of people coming from dc, New York, Philly area.) but still not really a big enough market that any major operators are out there yet. 

Our team covers Eastern PA from Philadelphia all the way north through Allentown and the Poconos.

Please read my recent post in the Starting Out forum "Takeaways from REI Conference to my California friends."

And what I did was a fly buy program I did a big production in SF Bay Area I rented a big conference room gave out stone tickets and spent probably 60k on marketing to drive traffic to the event..

Lowering prices on slower days can fill in the gaps, and it’s also worth setting longer minimum stays in advance to mitigate low booking volume over time.In my experience, mid-week travelers are usually on the road for work—client meetings, interviews, conferences, that sort of thing.

But, I do like having an agent to confer with, to be sure I'm not missing something.