I feel like there's the strong possibility of being stuck with a large chunk of change that I can't even use (if I don't want to pay the withdraw penalty) if my son decides to forgo college.

Not that it can't be profitable for someone doing it, but if you can make 2x or 3x the amount of money for the same time input, you can't blame brokers/agents for going to the segment that's more profitable.That isn't to say there aren't good managers in Columbus, for better or worse i've only heard one maybe two that were worth anything.

There are others that do enough volume to create some excellent economies of scale, take smaller markups, and make up for that in volume.Like the song says, "you better shop around."

You mentioned the seller initially wanted to sell conventional, do you mind sharing what his motivation was for going owner financing?

These was an awful lot of distressed property you could buy for a song.

There really is no right or wrong way with pros and cons for going down either path. 

Make sure the tenants and seller/landlord are singing the same song. ie, landlord says no security deposit was collected.

Too many in RE start off just doing the cookie-cutter stuff, and mailing out to delinq tax non-homestead ect...with an 'I'll buy your house today cash' song n dance.

You could get one of these quotes and use those #'s as estimates when vetting you possible purchases.2) locate a national commercial broker like myself and just ask for going rates.  

The larger banks (WFC, BAC, JPM etc.) may often 'think alike'; don't be surprised for instance if they all appear to be singing the same song.