I know they've been around for quite a while, and I'm wondering if anyone would be willing to share their experiences they have had dealing with them, either as an investor or a borrower.

Any suggestions for how to handle this and still turn it into a rental (it will cashflow) are greatly appreciated!

Your construction background and being local to Columbus are huge advantages—they’ll definitely give you an edge in finding properties and keeping rehab costs down compared to others.I’d suggest exploring parts of the city you’re less familiar with.

Flipping is about as least passive as it comes, so just make sure you wrap your head around how much time and management it will take to be successful flipping.For anyone getting started, I always suggest these 3 steps:1. 

Dmitriy, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for responding to my question and for suggesting some banks! 

I'd suggest you meet Julie Hudleson Schmidgall with METEC.

If I understand correctly, you're suggesting that we should focus on the big picture rather than getting caught up in minor details?.

In a perfect world an assignment (like @Chris Seveney suggested) would be recorded with each transfer of the note but in reality that does not occur.

Getting an offer accepted and then negotiating a reduction based on the findings from the home inspection and/or appraisal.Offering my agent's commissionI would appreciate any guidance or suggestions to make my offer as respectful and professional as possible.

So if I was dealing with a seller who was insisting on handling the transfer this way, I would be wondering what the seller is trying to hide... and I would figure it out.