Fine print.You should never be required to use any closing service (e.g. escrow) provided by the flat fee service agent.We've done hundreds of these for sellers in California and have found that a home selling boils down to getting just three things right 1) get pro photos, 2) offering a fair buyer agent commission on the MLS (typically 2.5%), and 3) price it right, which you'll know once you list (lots of offers = too low, no offers = too high.

The best rentals (for passive cash flow) are typically in B/B+ neighborhoods (good demand, low tenant turnover, but not such high PITI that you lose all your rental income to the bank). 

For the rentals, you can get a low interest SBA loan of around 4% (no grants). 

In general if you're going to do conventional financing, you can put down as low as 15% on a single family or 25% on a multifamily.

With a HELOC, you have no extra expense (some HELOC has annual fees, but they are low - like $100 - $200 at most which is negligible) unless you actually pull the cash out.  

@John Trommelen there are lenders that will go as low as 15% down but you will have a higher rate.  

Your revenues seem very low at 53k/year. 

If they pay low rent then they could still be below average for sales but make a profit.

Quality of tenants?

Is the demand just low at this point?