Essentially ended up screwed out of a substantial chunk of retirement savings and left to find my own lender elsewhere to close the deal.

And a general contractor would NEVER sign a customers contract 

Never invest in Longterm assets with short term debt.  

If not, a deal will never happen.Ying and Yang

I would never work with them again because the small discounts just is not worth the headache.

Your first set of problems you encounter you are ready to throw in the towel and that mindset will never work here.

Only one applicant qualified but they said in the end the house didn’t have everything they needed. 

--reach out and thank them upon getting the booking and ask if they have any questions--send a "Welcome" email or automated message during the week prior to arrival--reach out the day after arrival to ask how everything was the first night and ask if there is anything that the property needs--reach out at the end of the stay (that morning or within 24 hours) and ask how everything was, anything to improve, anything to add to the house and then offer an incentive for returning guests.My 2 cents,Mike Absolutely stay in your place as Mike said.You will see things the cleaners will never let you know about.We stayed in our PF will putting up the Christmas decorations and found a cracked plastic shelf in the fridge. 

At the end of the day, 99% of sellers and brokers only care about your surety to close (I leave out 1% that might care about HOW you operate your deals, regardless of price paid).The fact that you have never closed a large transaction AND are not providing all your proof of funds up front and/or talking with brokers about where the money is coming from, will give them some trepidation.  

Get a big downpayment so that the buyer doesn't end up in the same situation 5 years from now.