@Alex LocklearIt doesn't seem too unreasonable - given it's an estimate.

I think home inspectors are professional deal killers,,they do this to help there ego stay on top, non are certified electricians, and or Hvac, most sit at home,, and are proud that they kill deals,, its time to say go pound sand to these impotent inspector,s ..most dont have a glue what they are talking about,,and if they cant find anything.they will to check on something that is unreasonible..I threw one of them out of my house..rudely got nasty,,and i asked to him to leave..they smell like cabbage and have short fingers...

Section 8 will deem their asking rent "unreasonable") I'll explain it again (speaking s-l-o-w-ly): Section 8 uses the HUD guidelines for fair market rent which are based on the 40th percentile of a moderately priced apartment in a  given zip code.

Reason I'm asking is I am relatively new to REI and want to make sure I am not overstepping my bounds or being unreasonable by expecting the neighbor to assume the cost of repairs

What were your biggest hurdles with the SBA loan?

I would recommend finding a few lenders that can lend to Canadian investors prior to getting into a deal, that way you don't run into any hurdles on the back end.

I personally wouldn't go as far as to call them shady, but there's definitely been some fees and hurdles that weren't exactly laid out during the initial conversations and I'm in no way questioning your use of the description. 

The main hurdle that many of our borrowers face are the income aspect of it, especially expensive markets like the West coast.

While you still have to materially participate, you don't have the additional hurdle of needing to spend more than 1/2 of your total working time within the business (like with REPS).

We've been looking into acquiring suitable properties with our agent but the issue we're running into is the licensure specs (Maryland) contemplate owning/leasing the property before applying for a license (background - grandfather started the process 8yrs ago but deal fell through - given his professional status he was able to waive many of the licensing hurdles so not concerned about hiccups in the process).