Again, a word of caution, when you finance the downpayment with a HELOC, you are putting yourself in a highly leveraged position that may exceed the risk threshold for some people.

Does anyone know of any database (or website) that allows a landlord to report a "bad tenants", i am not talking about credit agency. just a simple database that allows a landlord to report a tenant that caused damages or did not pay rent?

I am watching some YouTube videos to see how the technology works since the Lowes website doesn't provide much guidance.I found some instructions on the Home Depot website.

I use Icomps and then i verify on the assessors website to see if they did sale for that amount. 

Financing was a challenge but we got lucky with the right family member in the right position at the time.

(long story, not very interesting read) It's a balloon at sale or maturity of the first loan.Anyway, I plan on recording it in second position.

how do I determine which market to begin my real estate investing strategy - seeking small multi family units with positive cash flow of $100/unit of more

You will, basically, be starting a flip from a negative equity position, and you'll have to dig out of that before you can turn a profit.

If that is the case, you will need to get comfortable in a 2nd lien position (and make sure the first will allow). 

We’re both in college, and while we both have respectable jobs (by college standards) and strong credit, we’re aware that it’ll be very difficult to find hard money loans in our position.