It's easy to obtain, costs very little, and doesn't require extra, on-going effort to maintain.

There are so many real estate investors that are cash rich, but don't show much income on their taxes, so you having a great salary could be a real asset to someone like that to obtain traditional financing.I certainly wouldn't look at the 1 bed condo as waste, I bought two one beds in North Brooklyn years ago and am not selling them to roll into multi families, you could do the same thing with some patience. 

We understand that we'll need to use a local bank to obtain non-conventional financing as well as putting more than customary down.   

Starting out, I am interested in finding good wholesale investments and obtaining a finder fee from there.

Pretty much all of our 25 unit rental portfolio was obtained by using the BRRR method. 

I don't know what the deal is with immigration status, being a Canadian, and trying to obtain citizenship and a SSN.

Obtaining enough properties to cash flow enough to replace even the most entry level job could take years in this market.  

I recently obtained a couple of quotes for foundation repair on one of my rental properties.

Karina, I manage 22 homes in AZ and I obtained my CPA certificate 14 years ago.

To my surprise, I can count on two hands how many times a seller/agent has actually called/emailed me to verify the POF.Often, one can obtain a letter from their bank stating the account holder's name, the date, current balance, etc... and that should be more than enough to meet anyone's requests.