Start by targeting high equity homeowners, not properties for sale on the MLS.

I want to know if  there is a high demand and if homes are renting easily.  

We advise landlords to require two main criteria:1) Household income should be at least 40x the monthly rent.2) Applicants must have a credit score of 680 or higher.It's also important to review credit reports for red flags like rental collections or high credit card balances.

Quality is going downhill and things are no longer as good as they were a few years back.

It's high risk potentially not so high reward situation. 

I also like that these newer homes attract quality tenants, I may be lucky but haven't had any issues with any of my tenants in these types of homes (yet).How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

even with a lower purchase price that's probably 1/3 of DC's they still mostly still don't work - rents not high enough, too much deferred maintenance, not in the right location, or all of the above. 

Unfortunately, this is near impossible without selling the property, rates are up and are likely staying high. 

. $140 equity in our primary residence that we’d be open to getting a HELOC on (would love feedback on if people recommend this or not).Given our limited available resources for down payment, high home prices, and higher interest rates, is now a bad time for first time investors to enter the market?

The $200k makes no sense and I highly doubt that buyer closes on it.