This foreclosure is in a beautiful area, 4 bed 2 bath and i have about 60,000 in equity.  

I'd say that a really big advantage to it all is just being able to establish equity now rather than later.

For industry insiders there is the MLS, various paid services, and calling in a favor from an escrow officer you give a bunch of business to.

My home is paid for and I am considering taking out some equity to purchase my first rental property. 

Then use that equity to be able to more quickly purchase properties, vs building up 20% down payment each time.

For example, for Lancaster County, this is the breakout by home value for Absentee Owners with Equity

Non-occupant cosigners don't do you any favors in terms of FHA down payment requirement on a 2-4 unit.Apply together, ask your lender to work it up individually for each of you, and jointly as occupying coborrowers.

I have a ton of equity in the property and I'm getting about a 3% return on it.

For the purposes of this section, a tenant shall be deemed to have relinquished possession of the premises upon any of the following:(1) Execution of an order of possession in favor of the landlord.(2) If the tenant has physically vacated the premises, removal of substantially all personal property and the providing of a forwarding address or written notice stating that the tenant has vacated the premises.

The third party leasing companies are able to leverage economies of scale/ bulk buying power on equipment / vertical integration to drive costs down such that they can install solar cheaply enough that they will be making money on the system very quickly if not immediately (by selling the tax credits to banks/investors/tax equity funds and by selling energy back to the grid at a premium) .