You should speak to a few local lenders and see if they have a product that might work for you.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Canadian investors have several financing options, such as mortgages, private lenders, cross-border financing, and partnerships.

With your development idea, start the discussion with a lender since they will have ultimate control.

This can happen with non-students as well.

I also had non-paying tenants that owed me, HVAC unit needing replacement, large trees hanging over property structure that suddenly died due to beatle infestation and college tuition due all at the same time.  

Who do you plan to target (accredited investors or not), do you plan to advertise to the public, Do you need an RIA, etc- Make sure you know what to look for in a PPM, LPA, subs docs, etc if you don't do them by your legal team.

My non-realtor friends in these places say that property values might actually be coming down right now.

On top of that, I must have shopped around to almost 20 lenders and their interest rate/LTV were the best I found thus far for my credit average (around 690 at the time).

DFW REI Club is a great place to start: https://dfwreiclub.com/ I also recommend any potential clients to reach out to my preferred lender & fellow investor @Andrew Postell.