It sounds like all these issues would have been discovered with a 5-minute walk-through.It sucks, but it sounds like you chose to rent without inspecting and now you're stuck with it.

Eventually I discovered wholesaling through Todd Flemmings book, and I realized that's what they were doing. 

My rehabs are usually mostly cosmetic so far, but sometimes you pull something up and discover some unexpected problems

I also have discovered that they tend to give short notice and leave when they do find a place.

The Discover IT card is a good starter credit card.

We will stop short of 20.A lot of houses in these rural areas don't have central HVAC and I've recently discovered most insurance companies won't insure a property without central heat.

I have found that most property owners do not want to be discovered (Or are hard to be discovered)... but business owners want their info to be found. 

Blogs, these forums, podcasts, youtube videos, the more you know the better you will be.Secondly, there are three primary roles that need to be filled, either all by you or with partners: Capital - equity and debt as needed, this could be all your money or investors and or/debtAcquisitions - deal flow. 

Hoping to gather some great case studies to feature in an upcoming blog.

Any suggestions or direction to past forums/blog posts would be greatly appreciated.