So if you have a community that has easier transportation to town or business hubs (Cranberry, SouthPointe, Moon, etc.) then you have a higher livable rate even if the traditional mill or mining jobs have dried up.

Is there anything specifically I should know about row homes that differ from traditional single or multi family properties?

Traditional bank financing and received a cash out for the renovations.

There are traditionally unkempt areas that are gentrifying and surrounding areas are ripe for money making fix and flip opportunities. 

If you think your credit will make it difficult to obtain a traditional mortgage, consider offering a land contract or a "subject to" contract to the seller. 

These meetings are more designed to gather people that struggle with wholesaling.Indeed... other than struggling wholesalers you have the newbies that get convinced REI meetings is the answer, just like you are being convinced now... then the other REI frequenter is your traditional hard money lender that tries to make money on innocent young investors eager to start, and anyone else that tries to make money off of it somehow.Lastly you have a few cash buyers that know nothing about marketing that desperately need a property to flip.

I went the traditional method for financing and borrowed against my 401K for the 20% down payment. 

One company owns everything and does nothing (this is your SLLC a/k/a “asset holding company”) and a completely separate company handles all of your operations (this is a traditional LLC a/k/a “operating company”) For the operating company which serves as your face to the world and through which you do all your business, you establish a Traditional LLC to carry out the operations of your investments.

Well, if you are going to do a cash-out refinance, typically the loan to value (LTV) will be around 20-30% when you go through traditional financing. 

That's a very expensive property and STR can be seen as having more risk than traditional tenants.