We are looking at putting a fund together to take advantage of it. 

Since this would be my first rental property (and first property in general), is it best to put 20% down and use the rest your money to fund other RE investments or pay it off in cash and build up from there?

Once you leave the corp job, and become self employed, you can roll all of those funds into a solo 401K and own real estate within your 401K.Keep the corp job until you're debt free, and your cash flow more then replaces your salary. 

Everywhere I look people make it sound so easy, but it is not at all especially if you don't have a lot of funds to invest.

Next time, All repairs paid for by the buyer should be done through a fully funded escrow account with the owner signing off on the scope of work and city permits. 

Hello everyone,I'm trying to find a way to fund a deal at 70K.

You need to find the property before you get the funding.

I have plenty of friends using money to fund their projects and really, have no idea where the funds are coming from.

Other than that you should be able to cover the down-payment with your funds.

I would probably buy it, but make sure you have sufficient reserves to shoulder the lack of rent / renovations / other costs while you stabilize the building.