The best thing to do is to talk to every local and regional lender in the area to find out what their appetite and requirements.

I currently live in Southern Maryland (Lexington Park area), but I have a flexible work schedule so I'm open to working with properties in the greater DMV and Baltimore regions. 

Regional bank or credit union is the right tree, but you're barking up the wrong branch. 

In theory a larger bank would be better suited (and truly regional and national banks do offer more competitive individual products at times) but to the contrary I've found my small one and two location banks having the most flexibility and speed in business, based on the trust we are able to build.I'd recommend asking around at your local REIA meeting to see if there are any pro-level investors in the room who happen to be lenders, or who invest in a similar way to you. 

MA and RI vary widely by region in cost and character.

Generally where I invest there are only a few properties that make the cut to bid on.If I knew what a real opening bid was, I may order a title report and consider bidding on more properties.BTW, I just bought my first property from the courthouse steps from a Region's bank foreclosure. 

For those that own/manage property in a snowy region what are is your policy for snow plowing?

Its mostly in the southeast region I believe.

Thought I would add to the discussion by running some numbers on the data.The following three maps show the change in the number of housing units for the 125 to 150k, 300k to 400k, and 750 to 1M home value cohorts from 2014 to 2018, aggregated by Census DivisionAs was stated, the supply of lower end properties (125k to 150k) has decreased drastically in all parts of the US except for the area around the great lakes region. 

Estimated market rent after improvements:  $3K (averaged from other similar properties in town w/ no waterfront)I've spent time researching local rent rates for in-town properties as well as properties in the immediate rural region but have been unable to find comparable water-front listings.