You have banks ( local,regional,national), credit unions, life insurance companies, & CMBS lenders.Who does what loan depends on location, asset type, and size of the loan.

It will help justify any credits or discounts you are asking for (Lower than asking price offer). 

b) Buy/rehab the property5 - After the "seasoning period" required by your lender, get the property refinanced.6 - Take the cash from the refinance (this is why you use cash to start with...and not a loan) and repeat Steps #4 - 6...as many times as you want/can.Note: After a certain point, or even in the beginning, you may need to involve cash partners to get the needed cash together, or a credit partner if you can't get approval for the refi's.For me I didn't have the cash to put down, so I used a hard money lender.

I don't believe exactly what the topic was, but at one point the instructor stated that a bad reputation would hurt you in this business!. 

-What's a reasonable credit requirement for this [lower income side] area?

I've heard that First Citizens has good products, as well as SC Federal Credit Union.

It's great that you are considering your neighbors, but a bad tenant is worse for you than your neighbor.  

I'm currently stuck and do not have any way for traditional funding and my credit is to low for other methods.

- Bad tenants?

I'm currently stuck and do not have any way for traditional funding and my credit is to low for other methods