It makes it very easy to find customers even with bad support.I am leaning towards going with the click plank option as I was told, that when it clicks together it adds another substrate or "floor" basically and that with the attached underlayment does a pretty good job of reducing noise.I looked at adding gypsum concrete (gypcrete), self leveling cementitious subfloors, wool insulation under the plywood, and another type of cement type floor, but they all have their pros and cons and doesn't seem to be worth the extra money in the end. 

And you're wise to point out that you don't have a track record so it may be difficult to get bank financing.

Also, I see that you're in Columbia, but if you feel like making the ride down to Charleston, REI Central is tomorrow night and would be well worth your time.

I know this is pretty obvious, but have you tried checking the Montgomery County property tax records or the property tax assessment records online for Silver Spring?

Is it worth waiting until we have more cash and purchase closer to Boston or do we move our endeavors north to get into real estate and scale up from there?

Julien - Any idea how much your property is now worth?

I worked with a local bank that had extremely low costs to refinance so it was well worth it for us, but some bigger banks may catch you off guard. 

There is no way that he or anybody will give you $18,000 worth of value."  

You’re gonna pay taxes and then a ten percent penalty, not worth it.

If the tenants are great then it might be worth trying to keep.