Renee, I'm a conservative investor, and so do not feel they are a match for me personally (for numerous reasons) so am not invested myself.

Freedom to fail. '08' could have been one of the greatest cleansings of our nation in generations but instead we got scammed and then force feed the kool-aid of how good it was that wall-street won out over main-street. 

I’ve used the large national and regional banks as well as smaller local ones.

Google investment DSCR mortgage LLC or something similar to find national lenders.

Are there programs to look into either state wide (NJ) or nationally that will help with down payment assistance or a construction loan?

Understanding my customer, I bought similar properties to what they were currently renting.This strategy is similar to how national retail chains operate: identify your target customers and provide what they want.

Columbus, Ohio is a great market to consider if you're looking for appreciation markets that still cash flow and Cleveland is a market with some of the highest cash-flow in the nation while still being a stable market.

Get on VRBO and AirBNB and check all these areas to see what's what.For example, here is a pretty cool place up in the Boise National Forest near Yellowpine - https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/M974361023...$260k but it needs a bit of updating.

Numerous experienced investors have stated that the syndicator is as important as the property.  

So, we obtaina full credit report and review collections, chargeoffs, age of credit accounts, active accounts, etc.to build an overall credit evaluation.FICO ScorePct of PopulationDefault Probability800 or more13.00%1.00%750-79927.00%1.00%700-74918.00%4.40%650-69915.00%8.90%600-64912.00%15.80%550-5998.00%22.50%500-5495.00%28.40%Less than 4992.00%41.00%Source: Fair Isaac CompanyPublic RecordsWe also obtain data from national databases about evictions, convictions and sex-offender histories.