Be sure that you have a differentiator that makes you unique against other homes in the market.

When I acquired the property, both tenants were paying below-market rents.

I might be eating these words later, but as far as I can tell, at least here on the Oregon Coast and beyond the market crash everyone is waiting has not materialized. 

A month-to-month rental is typically priced higher, which means you may be worth $4,000 - $6,000 per month.I highly recommend you research your market and understand the value of what you are renting.

Whether they are section 8 or market rate, a bad tenant can cause $10's of thousands of dollars of damage really quickly.  

Whatever is cheapest and most durable for your market!

My initial question, does anyone know what's involved to invest in a US market as Canadians?

The banks are just very conservative in this environment.I met a gentlemen who came into my brewery (current location that I lease) and we got to talking about the general market and our plans to scale. 

The RE market is a semi efficient market.  

The majority of data is open source and we can get it by simply looking at Zillow, county websites or heaven forbid taking a trip down to the county clerk’s office and actually pulling the documents.