Luckily I bought a property that was a fixer upper and I did all the renovations myself, and it also had a basement suite for an additional source of income. 4 years later, this market has finally bottomed and I'm just able to re-finance and pull out some capital.

Consumers often are less concerned when seeing a smaller monthly number than the larger gross figure.

If you're lucky, you're in an appreciating market that higher priced comps will sell while you are renovating

I have 5 new homes that I need full renovation bids on.

You can always pay it down on a 15-year timeline, but not be locked into the larger payments if things go awry. 

I just purchased a new home that will be a live in renovation with the intent to rent it out in a year or two.  

I do couple of FHA loans per month, including manual underwriting and 203K FHA renovation loans.

Agree on Roofstock.although an add on loopnet might work as well.I find those with larger SFR portfolio might want to look at hedgefunds that are actively buying in your area.. 

The problem that we are running into is funding the renovations.

A very few larger ones can ran as high as 500K.