Savvy real estate investors know that it’s best to employ a multi-pronged strategy to protect their profit including, everything from accurate sales comparables, to vetting and hiring trustworthy contractors, to making sure they’ve got the proper insurance and even that they have a solid exit strategy, should one become necessary.

If your finances / credit are a shambles and your current income isn't helping you sort it out,     then obviously you need to focus on gaining more income.Set your financial issues aside for now - they're not helping you - and learn to work around them.One of the biggest newbie mistakes is thinking that you need your own money and sterling credit to get into REI.While those certainly do help, if you don't have them, you need to find a different solution.Learn to attract and engage private lenders.Folks with large retirement accounts - medical people, attorneys, ... high-income professionals who may or may not be self-employed - need alternatives to the risks, whims and paltry ROI of Wall Street.

As I am new to the area, I would like to get some good macro data on Cleveland (i.e. vacancy, employment, MF supply/demand) as well as more neighborhood specific data to determine where best to start hunting for properties.

Though it is relatively small area.I am currently self-employed.

You can inquire with the other houses to see if they have room for you (posing as a potential guest), post a ghost ad (something I just learned yesterday), and call major employers and or property managers, though in your case it is the military so they may not use property managers and you'd have to call the base. 

I guess you can say the following criteria, will get you in the door of an FHA loan.620 Credit Score'2 Years stable income -w2, self-employed etc.

Midland has a stable economy but it's heavily reliant on a single employer (Dow Chemical) which has been less than stable. 

Cash flow was not important to him at the time (because he was employed) so he put all the income into paying down the loans one at a time.

,Neither your income nor your employment history figure into your credit score.

Your lender can review the docs and see if there are any issues with buyer (such as self-employed, high debt-to-income ratio, short time on the job, etc.)