Sounds like that although FHA will allow the 3.5% down, the bank's standard is a little higher so that they're loan portfolio is higher quality/lower risk loans.

@Josh Norris It sounds like you want a cost breakdown so you can assure the contractors are using quality materials.

Paul/Minneapolis area have a referral for a chep, quality granite countertop company?

Ive been successful with using Craigslist, Postlets (they list on several different websites- Trulia, ZIllow, etc), Rentals.com Craigslist gets me the most responses, Id say in general the quality of responses is higher from the others tho.

Does anyone have any "statistics" (doesn't have to be audited) on the call rate and quality generated from 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. mailings to the same list?

Share Better (http://www.sharebetter.org/) is spending $3 million on a campaign (in a format similar to AirBnB's marketing campaign) that highlights illegal conversions and evictions, as well as quality of life issues for residents living near short-term rental units.

As important as the money is, I also want to invest in an area I know will grow and do well for a long time and has good quality tenants.

Well,  never heard of them but the quality of their site is poor at best and looking at the homes for rent, they look super low income which translates to = long-term failure to whomever owns these homes. 

One of their points is that they will guide you on how to create credibility with HedgeFunds they currently do business with in order to get better quality notes that one can find via internet sites or servicers like fciexchange.com (does that smell like an upsell for the future?)

That way you can get either an inspector and/or a trusted, high-quality contractor to evaluate the property.