As it stands my knowledge is pretty basic, just what I've learned browsing the forums and gleaming through materials online, but I'm a quick study and want to really make an effort My specific areas of interest are wholesaling, buy and hold for rent purposes, and flipping once I become knowledgeable enough about the Philadelphia market. 

My request to the banker was very specific: I want financing options with almost 100% financing.

Just a thought, if you want to start at a lower pricepoint you may want to consider Riverside county, specifically Temecula or Murrieta.  

Does anyone know of any reliable, general contractors in the Hampton Roads area, specifically Newport News and Hampton? 

I do not know any specific lender in the Cleveland area but if you do speak with one I would ask them if they could do a drive by or desktop appraisal.

Are their specific areas where we get the most bang for our buck for going a little more highend?

On my search I was planning to utilize the 203K loan as well but I would suggest only dealing with a broker and agent that handled that specific type of loan before.

Hello Frank,Is this pure investment or do you have specifics that they are looking for for their own use?

This is handy if you have a specific email address that you use for one property but you want to handle all of your communication from another email account. 

Not sure if it's cleveland specific but there seems to be some consensus on this from what I've read so far.