No Planning.If you want to be successful using a PM, first of all you have to find a QUALIFIED company.

You have a good idea but look at what you set yourself up to fall victum to.You are wide open for agents and investors to flood you web-site and phone.Craigslist is good if you want to post a specific deal but to just put an open ended statement out there is a garunteed nightmare.You will be spending more of your time swatting away flys than working on deals.Why dont you try establishing your deals using signage and simple fllyers in your own town because there is a "Big market" right there in your city and all you have to do is tap into it.You are "Shot gunning" instead of using a more focused approach.How can you be successful nationwide if you have not made a name for yourself at home first.GET THAT MONEY MAN!

Someone above mentioned the idea of using a line of credit.

@William Luke LaityIt is possible to flip/wholesale properties using a self-directed IRA, but there are challenges to executing such transactions inside the IRS rules.  

I would prefer using a third party that is aware of the laws and has processes in place to protect personal information of tenants.

For Maryland, I expect you are correct and there is a substantial difference in cost/Btu between natural gas and electricity which will offset the increased efficiency of using a heat-pump .... kind of like how inordinately low petroleum prices offset the *real* cost of operating large, fuel-inefficient vehicles in North America. 

According to the mortgage broker when he did the pre-qualiication using a computer system it came up that my husband needs to put down 23%.

If you finance using a 5 to 10 year piece of paper you could lose the property because the price went down at the wrong time or didn't go up.

Not to mention the previous owner was most likely using a property manger and has no idea how things work.

I recommend using a the HOLD spreadsheet: https://www.kellerink.com/resources/Easily lets you plug in the numbers and track cashflows and ROI.