I have noticed while searching the Fannie Mae site there is very limited foreclosure inventory, especially in Washington State where I am interested in living. 

Hello Elena, If you go to NARPM.org, you will be able to search residential property management's by city.

I believe you have a 45-day window to shop lenders without having a drastic hit on your credit score.Happy to recommend someone if you're still searching, shooting you a PM.Also, as @Rene Hosman mentioned, there is a service here on BP to link you with lendersAll the best!

For the bankruptcy properties, we contacted the trustee phone numbers on the website, however, they usually just replied to ask us to look for debtor's attorney.For short-sales, we searched the listing on zillow.com, but majority of them are off market.We used BP recommended realtor and asked if they can help with the properties we targeted, the realtor searched for a week of the foreclosure ones and get back to me that she believes she will not be the right partner.

Here are a few suggestions on how you can maximize the wealth of information available: Check out the blogs and podcasts, or take advantage of the search feature (magnifying glass).

If I am about to search for some kind of cash out refinancing options, is it best to keep the properties in my personal name for now or should I move them into LLC’s before searching for financing options?

Just search this forum for "flipping taxes capital gains" or something like this.

They also felt it was good for tax compliance but not necessarily that they had a proactive working relationship with their accountant.I would recommend searching the forums here on BP as well as asking for recommendations. 

I've only dealt with residential at this point but am looking into self storage and on my search for commercial I stumbled upon a car dealership property where the owner is moving out of state and motivated to sell the property.

That's pretty much what Title companies do, they search and insure your title.