Hello, I'm hoping to make my first real estate purchase in the very near future, and am trying to understand the benefits and disadvantages of having lenders vs. having investors in my business.

Some folks will not feel comfortable offering without physically seeing the property, but they may be at a disadvantage since many OOS investors do lock up properties just based on the info they can gather. 

Just always been kind of seedy and feels more economically disadvantaged than other C type areas.

What are the disadvantages of lining it?

Neighborhoodscout.com says 62% of the population is economically disadvantaged as compared to 24% for the rest of the state.

But in residential leases it is presumed that the LL is the more sophisticated party, and in a better negotiating position, so the tenant is at a disadvantage in these type of negotiations.So to that end I'd suggest they either get the repairs done, or sell the property.

I have my flipping operations set up in an S corp, but I personally choose not to have my S corp hold my rentals as there are significant tax disadvantages for me to do so. 

There are some advantages and disadvantages and TX may be different than NC. 

While you can use an FHA loan to save on the down payment, it will have two big disadvantages.

I suggest that using a retirement account has some disadvantages: consider taxes, depreciation (passive loss), tax rates.If you use an IRA and invest in a property that has a loan on it, you are subject to UDFI (sometimes confused with UBIT).