The two houses I own, essentially break even.My Credit score was 810 before I bought the Colorado house in may 2013 and Refinanced the PA house in october, and I bought a new car in December (for a new business) I also opened up 3 business credit cards.

I was just about to make a phone call and give a Credit Card over the phone to signup for their next event this weekend here in the Great Philadelphia area.

WRONG.As soon as the owner answered the door, I gave the whole " Hi my name is Terry, I would like to speak with you about purchasing your property" and handed a card........ very humbly but confident, as to not put anyone off.Immediately I get a F OFF and a door closed in my face.This has happened before and will more than likely happen again.Now normally I would walk away and cross that one off my list, do not visit, do not mail, however, I opened my mouth and some words were exchanged.Next thing I know the home owners wife has grabbed me by the shirt and starts shaking me!!!!!!!

Also, as you suggested, have the non-working spouse as the primary applicant.The issue is that they have international credit cards.

Business cards, Doorknocking, newspaper ads, Magnet sign on your car/truck works.  

MARKET yourself, put ads out on Craigslist, banner signs, business cards, drive for dollars (knock on doors), write letters to vacant property owners, and visit your county public records.  

Credit cards and credit lines from distributors is doable but large loans or even leases seem to be where the trouble is.

I thought there would be just ONE bank for ONE business credit card, but it turned out that they submitted my application to 7 banks (who knows, maybe more), which at least two are for personal credit cards.

I think there's two strategies here that you could implement.Really scrape the MLS with keyword searches, DOM, etc. in order to find out which properties may be worth making an under market offer on with a chance at getting accepted.

My GC has a guy out at the job trying to scrape this stick down flooring up with a scraper tool and it isn't going very well for that guy.