Direct lenders are straight to the source, which may result in lower fees, will speed up the processing time to close, and preserve your credit score with simply 1 source pulling that information.

My portfolio lender does not have seasoning requirements and would lend as much as 80% or $89k however I chose not finance more than $69k to preserve cash flow and left $6k of my own money in the deal.

Rule #1 capital preservation is key.

For the past 5 years I owned and operated a property preservation business in CT and feel that this can possibly be of help to fellow BP members in my area. 

Another point as to why a bank would be holding these nonperforming assets and not foreclosing is the risk exposure that is opened up to having an REO on the books, and therefore the official owner and needing to do keep up with property preservation.

Another thing to watch out for is if the city is putting money into the property it might have historic preservation requirements that could make it even more costly.

Sounds like property preservation may of "preserved" the wrong home?

They are designed for exactly what you want to do: preserve capital and beat inflation.  

The difference in a good and bad manager is not $40 / month, it's thousands of dollars to your investment (don't get me started on property preservation and related catastrophic events like tenant-related fires without coverage). 

He may just be thinking about Wealth preservation and US real estate in his circles may be view as a store of value.