They said that if the contracting buyer didn't have the funds to buy at the time of agreeing on price with the seller - it was under a false scenerio - since they were not going to buy the house from the start.

If you are new, be sure you can raise the funds before proceeding.In my opinion, you are going to have a hard time raising money with a 6% pref and 70% of the profits after that unless you have a lot of newbie investors in your Rolodex. 

A cash-out refi could allow you to set aside some funds as a reserve or at least pay down your debts so that your lines of credit (credit cards etc) can act as your emergency reserve when more bad things happen. 

We are trying to not use our retirement funds.

As a management company, we also have a duty to get a property occupied with a qualified resident as soon as possible and sometimes that means adjusting rents down for right now to generate revenue.  

During the escrow/title process, you are finalizing loan documents, reviewing title documents (HOA disclosures if applicable, title reports, etc), obtaining homeowner's insurance, and preparing to wire your funds to title. 

In this case, you can use Rental Income from the units that you will not be living in and that income can count to help you qualify.FHA rates are going to be lower than conventional for you almost always, but FHA does have a 1.75% funding fee. 

I would try to subscribe to Angies List to determine a suitable mortgage company.

I started out with a great cleaning company that did great work but the owner and I were not a good fit, they cleaned well but she didn't like my over communication. 5.) 

We have a property management company and real estate brokerage.