I have some lined up but will need more so I appreciate all the feedback/concerns as I start to shop it around. 

The best banks that I have found based on your main concerns are smaller, regional, community sized banks.

And don't expect the compliant tenants that complained to stay after you minimized their concern and did not address it.

Extremely communicative and Bob spent time over multiple phone calls answering specific questions I had concerning the deal.

Property values have been appreciating rapidly in recent years, and the city’s population has started growing again—a trend we haven’t seen in decades.I’m also based in California and have been investing in Detroit for several years, so I understand the concerns of out-of-state investing.

I would recommend saving a little more.From what I've read about Cleveland is that you need to be concerned with high crime.

It could certainly be a concern - but depends on a lot of factors - are you looking multi or SFR? 

Last question, how significantly would the APR improve if we leave 30% in vs 25% or 20% on a HELO? 

The problem (as you have cited) is trying to understand what you need (you don't know what you don't know), where to get it, qualifying its source(s), and the validity and usefulness of all that.Pardon me if I've gone into this too much, but I meet many people with the same concerns that you are voicing and this is offered, as much as possible in direct response to your post.Please feel free to contact me if you have any comments or questions. 

When you do that, you can get better pricing and leaves less room for error.The best advice is to push forward as quick as possible, fail forward, and always continue to introspect on what you would do differently and then ACTUALLY go back and implement that change (easier to say than do).