For financing, there are programs like FHA loans for first-time buyers, and there may be local or state-level programs offering incentives for affordable housing investments.

VA loans are the only loans that allow this, and there is no rate penalty for it no longer being your primary home.With that in mind, you could do a cash out refinance today at a higher rate than current market rates which will create profit on the loan, we can take that profit to pay for your closing costs.

So the only money out of pocket is any closing costs that don't get worked into a new loan.

Hire a loan servicer - plenty of discussion and recommendation on BP on this topic and some recommendations for servicing companies 

Buy a 4-plex with an FHA loan.

I went from a 15 year loan to a 30 year loan, locked in my interest rate at 2.85%, pulled out $111K in equity, and lowed my monthly mortgage by $20 per month. 

As far as financing what would be a good loan?  

closest I saw that happen ( nobody buying) was 08 to 2011.. when investor loans left the building ..

Often, I am not able to keep all of my ira funds invested in active loans so I would like to be able to keep the money that is not invested in loans in a liquid "money market" type of fund on a temporary basis.

We continue to see slight upticks in defaulted loans and loans in bankruptcy.