No company will actually hold your hand through this process, which is what many of them promise. 

I'm sure if you do some "dialing for dollars" someone out there will lend him in 2nd position (think 16% and 4 points, if not more) and make him sign a document wherein he promises NOT to live there, but we all know dang well he does live there.

I then called another company Bio Recovery who's parent company is Prestige WorldWide Industries (http://www.prestigeworldwide.company) which if you've never seen the movie Step Brothers is the name of their "Fake Company" which makes me now question doing business with these guys.

A tenant may promise to smoke outside but that is not going to happen all of the time.

In the end, he asked for one more day (which he agreed to pay for out of deposit) and promised it will be empty, cleaned, and swept.

Begin “Faking it til you make it” - read books on whatever it is you want to master (real estate books), listen to podcasts, wake up early, work longer, save more than you spend, write down goals and plan each day, etc.

I just had a call with them today and they promised a 1-5% response rate.

My commercial bank loan officer would likely be gone or changing his/her tune about the refinance promised earlier. 

Sources of cash include:1) Personal funds2) HELOCs / HELs (not personally a fan of borrowing, but some folks are)3) Hard money lenders4) Relatives / friends / partners with cash on hand or easily obtained (retirement accounts, CDs, savings, etc)The reason a wholesaler wants cash, as others have noted, is most wholesalers lock up a property and promise to close within 30 days. 

Does anyone have any advice or other promising location I could take a look at to get started?