The lender will require the buyer of a short sale to be an arms length party, and you're excluded from that. 

We missed out on a deal yesterday because of a group showing of a home and the other party in attendance wrote a check on the spot. 

I will have my RE License and I have plenty of motivation to work so I don't foresee any problems with surviving in a reasonable mountain town/cityI have a 50k/year casino job right now that I plan on using to save up enough to move West.

I think the tough part is selling the business.  

Not sure about Fannie Mae, but sometimes lenders will become very conservative and use overlays so that the loan can be sold off to more potential parties.

As to the handling of the fee, if it was a third party general contractor it would be paid to that person.  

And if I could just reach out to them and let them know Im willing to take this nuisance off their hands and make them money, it would be profitable for all parties!!!

The building is walking distance from a college campus and less than a 5 minute drive to downtown area and 10 minutes from a community college, 5 minutes from a hospital and in the near future there will be a casino about 5 miles from it.I have a good relationship with the landlord so hopefully he is open to a creative deal.

FROM your Ira you could give a loan to third party not connected with your family.

If the first one does qualify, I return the app fees to any other parties- I feel like this is the right thing to do and would like to continue the practice.