Again havent tested it but my inclination is that I'm in these properties (with nice cashflow) until the neighborhood really takes off or I'm exiting to an investor at a cap rate that is attractive to them which is prop high single digits ie $65k-80k.  

Great point mentioned by Ryan Goldfarb , as someone who grew up and is now looking to invest in Weehawken the vacancy rates are certainly in the low single digits.

As mentioned previously, there are two ways to go about proving/disproving the eviction. 1) Verify the address/owner/manager of property applicant claims to have lived during time period of eviction & get written evidence from landlord that applicant was residing there. 2) Send a written request to landlord/owner/manager involved in eviction to verify that this applicant is NOT the same as one in eviction (I ask if last 4-5 digits of ssn match their records).

Here's the question:I have my primary resedence (about 25% equity), and would like to finance the second home as an investment property using conventional loan.

You could always save up 20% and get a traditional mortgage, or save up 5% down conventional loan and buy your property to live in for a year, then convert to a rental after 12 months (least risk), then repeat.

Folks,It is possible to build a Passivhaus compliant home (energy consumption <=15kWh/m^2 per annum) using off the shelf materials with a marginal increase in construction costs (~10-15% ... less as the workforce becomes more skilled).Primary heating and cooling of such a home can be accomplished via the ERV/HRV system with a small auxiliary heating source (there's a house here that has a 1500w auxiliary coil to provide additional heat to the fresh air supply during the coldest part of winter ... that's essentially replacing your furnace with a hair dryer).Even a near-Passivhaus construction (or retrofit) can lower energy costs 70% or more in comparison to the conventional (or even R2000) house being built in Canada these days.  

We're looking at buying a few apartment units or small SFH that are in the 50-75K range (ready to rent with minimal work) and are finding that most conventional lenders don't have interest in loans that small.

I've been able to use conventional so far.

I wouldn't worry too much about not having assets when it comes to qualifying for a mortgage, that's doesn't factor into the equation, with some readily available conventional loans.  

I've been reading other posts and wanted to add a few facts about my mortgage:It's a conventional 30 year loan, originated in October 2015.