Church leaders, professors, soccer moms, retired trades contractors and the only RE experience or assistance might be from a Realtor who volunteers for the feather.

Have income high enough to meet their threshold for the properties that you are buyingIn terms of getting multiple mortgages with smaller down payments, you could do the live in BRRR method.

Are there any better methods than direct mail?

Its based on County, method of payment, down payment of and so forth...The app works well.

Toss it, ignore it, burn it, whatever.Also, 3.5 cap rate is still high in most of BK for actual trades - just saying.

Obviously you would probably get better terms financing it with residential, but I am curious if the rules of forced appreciation still come into play when financing through this method. 

@Kelly S.If owner financing is not an option, you can research other methods like lease options.  

I'm sure you're going to love it here and meet a lot of great people to help you get started.I'd definitely recommend attending local meet-ups and networking with various  trades unless you plan on doing all the work yourself.

(proof positive of my limited intellectual capacity).On a lighter note, I'm pretty happy that I've traded CA's 9.3% state income tax for Ohio's 4.4%.

Study other methods of taking title, seller financing, sub-2 deals, partnerships, working with the owner.