, a couple of red bricks are cracking on the front steps, some stumps in the front yard need to be removed from where they fell over from storms, HVAC unit is very old and needs replaced, and retaining wall around back of home has a couple of spots where it is cracking/eroding at the bottom.The questions I have are what are the next steps that I need to take to get financing/start the process of rehabbing the home?  

hi zion. let me give you a quick education on how you can do this. first, let me say that doing it yourself is not a great idea. yes, you can learn how to do a pretty good job, but the experts are the experts, thats why you pay them. that being said, here is a basic education. go to the record of deeds office or county clerk or whatever you call it in your neck of the woods. sit down on a computer and plug in the address. look for anything and everything to do with that house. look for liens especially. after you find any open liens for the last, lets say 50 years, look forward for lien releases for each and every lien. if you find the releases, then those loans/ liens are finished and will not be a problem, unless something stupid comes up on them where someone signed in the wrong spot or the date is wrong or something like that. anytime someone places a lien on a house, be it a mechanics lien or loan or back taxes, they have to file paperwork with the county to do so. it will be recorded. anything that is open and has not had a release of lien, is still a valid claim against that house. simply put, the complications involved here, especially if you have never done this before, is exactly why you pay an expert to do it for you. good luck

If that's the case then you may not want to live in a marginal spot. 

No, your advice is spot on; what I was kind of figuring.  

@Trey Watson was spot on - Pat loves to talk a lot, but he knows his stuff.

   " I only buy for cash flow appreciation is just icing on the cake"that mentality has led many undercapitalized folks starting with their first rental house.. the banks may require some reserves when the loan is made then they do what most other red blooded Americans do and go buy stuff  LOL   not all but many. 

Maybe I should write for the chamber of commece.. at the end of the day I would still much prefer to live in the Napa Valley ( which is were I lived before I moved up there) but its a pretty nice spot really.. and I travel extensively thorugh the US on work.. so I see many metro areas and their housing stock..

Blood at Blackwell realty ( also my property manager) and I'm currently looking for a duplex that cash flows. 

Additionally, it has a deed logging road, and has a transmission line touching the property in two spots with 3 phase power.Today the broker got back to us after we asked about solar power potential and he says the substation is away from the site (about 4 miles).

There are bigger funds out there who I think just want a portfolio of stable cash flow properties, even if it's only 5-6%, it works for them, not for me.I consider myself a big fan of contrarian investing, buy when there's blood in the streets, avoid the feeding frenzy.