However the opportunity to build an expertise in a regional/niche real estate opportunity is greater and more likely for an individual investor, vs. building an expertise in investing in most any class sector or individual stock without insider info.

Must be a very recent, or perhaps regional, policy shift as we have 5-6 unit properties under residential financing with CIBC and RBC  

Find a local mortgage broker or a regional or small community bank. 

Montgomery county is another region I thought about investing in but finding a distressed home in this area will be hard. 

We are interested in the Mobile Home Park space and have been looking in Texas and the Sunbelt region.

There is at least one REIA in most regions of country.

For example, Regional CPA Firm has a separate entity that does valuations for private placements or an investment banking / capital group. 

All are in growth regions. 

Id probably also advise against a place like say Remax, which might have a $1,000 a month desk fee, (Which is often advantageous for the big producers like myself, but after you are more established) and go instead for a place like Keller Williams where they are intensive of training and you might start at something like a 65% split or so, then you get to say 70%, then cap out and get to 100% after you pay them $30k or so or whatever your regions cap is.  

You can research/google resource sites such as RSMeans.com and figure out what costs are associated and they can break it down by regions too.