Go to BUILD YOUR TEAM at the top of the screen and look for local investors or meetups in your area.

Might be worth a call with a few local mortgage brokers.

I have seen a few scary things like "you need to dig up the entire front yard" in other groups but I'd like to hear from people that are actively investing in the city, and meeting the new standards, as to what their experience has been.

The borrower was overqualified, the property was cash flow positive, I approached a local lender and due to the strength of property and borrower they provided essentially conventional terms of 25% down on a 25 year amortization where as other investors could only consider the transaction as cash. 

As a matter of fact, I recently met a young lady who, shortly after meeting, called me for help with an investment she'd made with someone else after both she and the other person failed to satisfy their contractual agreements.

There are some restrictions on maximum combined loan to values and occupancy type for secondary and third lien positions that will need to meet lender guidelines. 

I hired a local handyman by father knew to 'save on repair costs' as opposed to going with one of my usual GC's.

When creating a list, you are essentially filtering homeowners based on who might seem most likely to sell.You can check your local county records site for properties with delinquent taxes, probate cases, or foreclosure filings

I meet the requirements for an accredited investor and so do many people in the San Francisco Bay Area (pretty easy for a married couple with $300,000 income, lots of people in that situation).

Or maybe go to the town (if you're local) and explain how you want to start improving the neighborhood but need some of your funds released to fix the existing violations.