You can try reaching out to a bunch of them but you most likely will get lackluster response if you don't show some basic level of commitment on your end. 

Entry-level salary but certainly nothing to frown upon.

For example, I wanted to buy a cheap, off-market hoarder house or fixer-upper under $X.

You've done a great job with keeping your debt low so I have no concerns about your level of discipline to use/reuse a line of credit.All the best!

I always dig into the borrower though (character) - honesty, experience, skill-level, etc.

And while seller financing is a very common practice in business acquisition, the good deals are not being done with high levels of it.Particularly with smaller deals, and especially with a business like a laundromat, there are cash buyers out there.

If they work and the risk level is something you are comfortable with, go for it.

Agreed... depends on your skill level.. if you have no experience at real estate other than maybe buying your personal resi.. and want to venture into this I can't see how the course would not be a good use of funds.if you have 20 years as an experienced investor or real estate broker then the course maybe is not needed.. but the contacts I am sure are worth every penny..  

The metrics I'm primarily focused on are: rent appreciation rate, property appreciation rate, economic growth rate, unemployment rate on the macro level.

But by the way they perform Matt must over burden them with tasks outside their experience level.