I walk into the house with my binder of all my needed contracts and if we come to an agreement I fill out the contract right then and there.

You should always underwrite a deal traditionally, and if it doesn't work that way, then you should consider seller financing.Gino

@Jeremy Staggers Houston has plenty :) American Title Company of Houston/Patriot Title/Capital Title ... all of them have 10+ branches  and they do all sorts of things for investors (e.g. expedite title search, loan doc prep, double close, blind HUD etc) ..PM me if when you have a contract and would be more then happy to introduce you to one of them.

In essence I didn’t want to make time for this and take it away from valued family time with our little ones but now I feel if it can’t be avoided then they should owe for damages.

They've been the best tenants because they are only there half the time and even then, they work all day and just sleep there.

Is there a way to offer and buy a property for cash (either private or hard money) then refi into a mortgage at 95% LTV?

I wish things like this were a little more black and white, but then again what fun would that be.  

For example, buy properties with a 10% return, and you will have 2500ish to reduce that $5K expense a month; then you can save more money quicker, gain more skills to increase your active income to pour into LTRs to get that ROI up to quit your job in 1-2 years.

Then they struggle in their 2nd year when they have to find business via other channels.

Use a hard money lender and our own money for the rehab and then refi in our names?