They found people with money or used creativity to succeed with no external funding. 

If it were my kids and there was bad water I would own you right now and take it to court versus fighting you over 700 bucks and then have the judge throw down a harsher punishment.

I would not think that your obstacle is one of qualification.However, it might be one of approach.Without a doubt, the most effective way to move your profile to the “top of the pile” on any hiring manager’s desk In a market where managers are receiving resumes from a combination of multiple online sources, in addition to internal recruiting teams, and external agencies (sometimes totaling in excess of 400 resumes at a given time), is to connect directly (preferably on LinkedIn) with as many people as possible who hire for the types of positions that you are interested, and set up a time to meet.

Some of them will require specialist contractors if they are historical (for example in England, windows in historical homes can cost tens of thousands to replace since they have to maintain their external look).

But I'd also really like to verify with some kind of external sources, so I'm not just trusting their word for it.How would you go about verifying the projected rental rate?

Some external perspectives that I probably wouldn’t have been able to come up with on my own. 

Externalities?

yes....and then BP can show the actual data or external URL whether it's possible to cashflowing in cleveland or not ,

This process has been more internal, than external, for me so far, but I feel like I am in the place I need to be as I start this journey.Thank you for all of your links and resources.

Unemployment, poverty, poor governing, lack of new jobs, slow external investment, violence, and so many other factors that result in a place being relatively cheap.