@Ashley Corbett I would have your agent make a preliminary call if possible and find out what is important to the seller.

The rest of that is for the bank to deal with; if they can get the pre-approval letter someone else has already done the preliminaries on credit & DTI.

no money is owed I have a preliminary title report

She has been the one finding the properties so far so I can run the preliminary numbers to see if the deal is worth looking at.

There is however entitlement portion of the VA loan- like the guarantee of the loan if default occurs broken down in preliminary and secondary entitlement that would come into play.That can be a little market dependent on the amounts.

@Lonell Slaughter, 1st thing to do is get a title report, or at least a preliminary title report for the property house so you know for sure who owned it and what if any loans, liens, or other encumbrances are on the property.  2nd Thing is to determine whether the owner (your Great Aunt?) 

With a refinance, the title/attorney will pull a preliminary title report.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.Very unlikely to happen - the HMLs collateral is the subject property, so they will need to see the deal in order to provide financing approval.You may be able to get a proof of funds and some preliminary approval from some HMLs based on your liquidity, but before you get too far along in the process, most HMLs will want to see a deal.Hope this helps,Michael

The DFW metroplex is a hot market right now, just like everywhere :)Preliminary research shows that I can likely rent it for $2500.

I'm not so sure about WA, but being a high cost coastal state I would wager they're none too friendly.Generally if you google around you can find guides as to what that all means, as well as how to determine if a particular state or market is good for investment.