Options that I envisioned in my plan included:1) Fix and Flip2) Be a wholesaler 3) Become an Agent4) Multifamily investing 5) Syndication6) Single family rentalI focused on a "Warren Buffet" approach and decided to buy "out of favor" single family houses, fix them for value creation,  and rent them out to working class tenants.  

This is the kind of investor you'll want to meet and understand over the next few years.You have the right experience to get the job done, and that's one more vote in your favor than I would offer to someone in another industry trying the same thing.

Terms won't be quite as favorable, but you'll get your money back and if you need to down the line, you should be able to refinance again to cover the balloon payment if the loan requires one, assuming your equity position is strong.

Even if you don't think you know people with such funds, often people will have old retirement accounts from previous jobs that can be rolled over to self-directed IRAs, allowing you to set up a win-win scenario - you get good rates and favorable lending terms, they get a better return secured by local real estate and managed by someone they know.Lastly, I've noticed a lot of increased activity in the syndication space, which is a variation of private financing but expanding beyond friends and family.

So while I am obviously in favor of investment in Cleveland let's not pretend that the local government is giving anything away to investors out here.

But........the original lender filed a law suit in 2009 (not a foreclosure) and cited the mortgage in the suite and the judgement was issued in the lender's favor in 2015.

Well I can't speak for BRRRR as I don't do that method myself, but generally speaking I'm always in favor of going the investment route versus the primary house route.

What I'm hoping will work in my favor is that the only debt I have is a car payment.

I tend to favor the HELOC unless I've identified my next property and I know I want all the $ at once. 

Favorable, forward-thinking business climate for employers?