As such, these properties are languishing on the market but the banks don't seem in a hurry to cut prices.

Similar in most jurisdictions in Canada (of which I am aware) ... if you live in the house, then you may be cut some slack about renting rooms.  

I will like to cut and paste some underwriters’ verbiage BUT I’m prohibited from doing so.

I am a trust deed investor and I want to share the investments with other investors and charge them a cut as a finders fee?

In regards to the down payment I found a grant that I might be able to qualify for which is for down payment assistance and closing cost thus cutting my saving time by half.The dilemma I’m facing is that recently I been talking to a national real estate investor and I’ve been following him for about a year in conference calls mainly, his name is Mark Pantak he’s been trying to come to develop a group in NYC for a while but it seem to be difficult for him to find a committed person.

With your 2 properties one vacancy cuts your income in half--a big hit. 

Then you could get a cut of that and build your way up from there.

-client, architect and contractor sit down together and cut costs by finding less expensive finishes, fixtures, appliances, and other measures to meet the budget.

I had to immediately cut ties.

Go ahead, build a money producing web site or app, and let's see you continue the income stream (dealing with me too competitors, for one), dealing with customers, and the endless tech and platform upgrades you will need to be on the cutting edge.