In other words, if the borrower had $300,000 of debts before the short sale (including mortgage, 2nd mortgage, car loans, credit cards, student loans, accrued tax liability, loans from parents or IRA, everything) and only $200,000 of assets (including FMV of home as determined by the short sale contract, equity in vehicles, so-called "sticks and stuff" being the total of all routine personal possessions, and value of retirement accounts) the the borrower is $100,000 under water or insolvent.  

Be strict and then once they're trained you can be kind. 

Are they very strict on their inspection?

If you are looking for a cash out loan with conventional money they have pretty strict rules on how much you can get a loan for during certain time periods. 

If I do the usual move out routine of cleaning, painting, replacing carpet etc., we will be able to easily raise rents by about $200 per month.If we do more of a remodel, i.e., replace cabinets, update bathrooms, new base boards, new upgraded interior doors and maybe reconfigure the interior we could probably raise rents by $400 or more.

I heard someone at a reia talking about how Baltimore is strict with bandit Signs and tend to give fines.

Should I strictly use them and row our relationship stronger or should I utilize several.Just curious as to what other portfolio lender users do.

Or better yet, since you don't know what the market will look like in a few years, you have a few options: (1) you could form an LLC where you are both members and you get an interest based on the value of your contribution, i.e. finding the property, managing it, etc. with a buyout right after the 5 yrs; (2) You can just own the property in your own (or your own LLC's) name and use the investor strictly as a lender, pay them interest or P&I monthly and balloon upon sale, just like a conventional lender, or (3) if the investor wants ownership, you can either take a salary as manager and just have an option to purchase in 5 years, or a right of first option/refusal if they want to sell before then.

Do you want to borrow strictly based on the income of the property?

How are you planning on purchasing - do you have cash, financing, or are you strictly looking for seller financing?