I am a little nervous tieing up so much capital into the assets as commercial loans generally have much higher standards for down payments and experience of the investor.

That was Notice to the previous owner that was foreclosed on and has no bearing moving forward No you will not have any advantage as this is standard procedure.

Do you have any standard contingencies you would put with the offer when dealing with Homepath?

I think 1 - 3 years is pretty standard.

Is this a standard fee?

So far I'm using the standard CAA lease. 

May be more than I could do cheaply even to get it to rental standards.

If the borrower will have one to six financed properties, Fannie Mae’s standard eligibility policies apply (for example, LTV ratios and minimum credit scores).

So, ever institution has a very rigid set of criteria, some of which is driven by Fannie Mae and some driven by their own internal standards.

typically shingles will run you $20/bundle (3 per 100 sq ft or 1 Square) for lower end, install depends much on tear off and prep or shingle over and prep, we have opted for Steel when ever reasonable to do so, it costs about 10-20% more up front, but will out last me, and does not have Ice damming problems we see with regular shingles in the north. standard shingles, you can expect about 1/2-2/3 the stated warranty actual life span, so 40 year shingles will last about 20 years, but steel, even 40 year has been known to far exceed the 40 year warranty, I can typically get a roof done in steel with a 2 layer tear off, and steel installed for around $4-6K for a 13 Sq roof thats material, labor and disposal, I just has a 11 sq one does with dimensional shingles (steel wasnt practical) for $2,700 including tear off and disposal. keep in mind, the cheap guy may not be the best value, there are a lot of hacks out there, and anyone with a pitch fork, a hammer and a nail gun calls them self a roofer.