I'll spend some time following these leads.

Thinking as an investor, taking a more conservative approach with clients and spending a lot of hours finding evidence of owners who are making consistent profits.

I suggest you spend some time reading through these forums and your local landlord tenant laws before you end up in a worse situation.

They won't spend a lot of time on the loan until I provide a signed OTP. 

The borrower and the asset itself.Borrower:Your credit (are you a trustworthy borrower), are you capitalized enough to float this project/ cover the debt, track record (borrower/ contractors experience).Asset:Comps (as-is & ARV), LTV metrics (lender can help verify these if you have questions), detailed budget and scope of work, tentative schedule, exit strategy.Of course any lender/ partner will dive in a little deeper after the initial pitch but if you have all of the above ready for your initial conversation it will go a long way in getting deals approved/ partners on board.

I typically tell investors to budget 800-1100 a year for a duplex in Cleveland, Ohio.

With Allentown, any time you buy a property for $15-20k, it's pretty easy to spend the same amount in rehab... so that $2,000 / month easily drops to a much more realistic level then!

What are the Reno budget should range from 3-40k? 

If you're looking for a quality contractor, you must be willing to pay more and budget more.

I also advised them that we aren't willing to go month to month because my wife and I are planning a trip out of the country for two months and we can't allow the house to sit vacant without renters during this time (and then have to return and spend another month looking for and qualifying new tenants).