I've had many clients go in with a portfolio ranging from 5 to 10 single family rentals and the banks treated them like horrible.

At 20k in savings and looking for multi family you will have a very hard time finding anything in Colorado along the front range.

Was 22 years on the Front Range (Denver metro and foothills), then 3 years in Montrose, CO (on the Colorado Western Slope, population 20,000, 35 miles north of Telluride). 

Heck,Wyoming is one big town with long streets.if you are interested in:Worland, Lovell, Gillette, Greybull, Add me too.it makes a good weekend hobby for me to research and scoop up FSBO off market properties. plus a little outdoor recreation on the side along the Big Horn mountain range.

I know Jacksonville FL has been very popular on BP for the last several years.Inventory has been crazy low even in the middle of a drawn out pandemic.However,the low inventory didn't truly hit home until I had a few vacancies this month and asked my agent to list them.As is customary,I went on Zillow ,typed in my zip code and adjusted the filter for number of beds/baths and the desired rent amount.To my amazement,in my entire zip code,only one other unit was on the market for rent in my price range <$1000.Then the agent sent me "rental comps" the next morning in order to advise on a reasonable list price.It turned out 4 out of 5 units on his comps list were my recently rented units as well.At that point,it was clear we were our own competition.Nobody is selling.Whatever is coming up for rent is being snapped up in record time.The following week,a duplex came up for sale on MLS at the beach for $369,000.My notifications alerted me and I thought that was a fair price since I could probably get $1700 in rent for each unit with minor cosmetic upgrades.I checked "days on zillow"....8 hours!

Your constraining number to start will be sufficient reserves.

Hypothetically, if we were to ignore the price range, would you agree those neighborhoods have a strong (and stable) renter's market? 

The only caveat is that I need help with the mortgage due to lack of sufficient income, and help with some rehab costs.

“Looking for investment properties to buy,” might be sufficient to generate a few leads directly coming to your email.

If you are more comfortable with a lease that you created (b/c you know it's a good one) that shouldn't be a problem, but a MTM would be sufficient with a note that you are waiving your normal lease requirements due to their long history of good tenancy etc.