As a retired Air Force Colonel he is willing to have a direct payroll allotment setup so the repayment of the loan will be drafted from his wellsfargo account.

These sellers either are not sophisticated enough to require proof of funds, or have properties difficult to sell conventionally and are willing to forgo POF in hopes of making a deal.

Any tips at all on how to do anything more sophisticated for my due diligence aside from flip through Google, look to see how BBB lookup goes and hope for the best.

@Craig ComstockLLC's can potentially provide tax relief by self-employment tax savings if selected to be taxed as an S-corp.However, be mindful that the tax savings comes with additional administrative tax burdens - S-corp tax return / payroll tax return.

It would be converting income that doesn't pay any payroll taxes, into income that does pay payroll taxes. 

A lot of sophisticated buyers who are interested in safety deem those markets to be safer, and as such more valuable. 

I'm not too sure how many agents/agencies are looking for unlicensed assistants these days - most folks will want to keep costs low and avoid extra payroll expenses.

BUT... you need to be somewhat sophisticated and be able to use formulas like IRR, PV, Lookup Tables, etc.

For the unit count, the payroll actually seems high to me, but different operators will approach that differently. 

It’s make payroll and 1099 a breeze.