I imagine progressive, geico, State Farm etc will give you issues like this.

if looking to purchase out of state your best bet is a large national bank or to search for a community bank in that location. 

So being on a tighter budget this time around with less time to put ALL my life into flipping a house (at least for now) for a quick sale,  i figure my best bet is to start through a rental.  

I bet he can find something that will be a good fit for you.

My bet is that it has to until the supply catches up with the population growth or that population growth itself declines while the inventory increases.I don't believe that's the case just yet.

But i'd be willing to bet that you'll miss something along the way that will either cost you money, give the seller a leg-up on negotiations, or cost you the deal.   

Keep us updated on your progress.

Anytime you have a couple looking to rent, and they only want one of them to fill out the application, you can bet that's because the one they don't want filling out an application has a boatload of derogatory stuff that will turn up upon being screened.

If they are willing to pay back rent at all you are lucky, getting them to sign some sort of promissory note would probably be your best bet, but talk to a lawyer. 

Hopefully this would improve my cash flow opportunity along with raise rents, appreciation of the property and attempting to mitigate cost (although I bet a lot of people with experience might laugh at me there).