After surviving three different investigations in three different states, I'm terrified to get more calls from investigators, and I'd prefer to be unambiguous about my intent and position just in case I get additional calls from other investigators.)

I would prefer to stay in the Lake Geneva area and presently have a pretty specific target of home I am looking for.

I prefer the first one over the latter.

If you are aware of any, would you recommend it or do you prefer it the old-fashioned way: checks?

The feedback I've received is that people prefer to have a live-person at the home so they can ask the agent questions or they just don't feel comfortable putting their CC info on the site. 

I prefer buy and hold.

I prefer a solid 20%-30% down payments. 

This one is personal preference, but I would never work with an agent without that agent being able to oversee, or seamlessly hand-off rehab work, and property management.  

As I eluded to in my post (or attempted), I live 40 miles outside of Mpls and prefer to keep my first property close by for simplicity of management and control. 

The "personal gain" for your Realtor in introducing you to a preferred lending partner is likely to be limited to transaction comfort and accessibility  as well as referrals to other buyers/sellers.