If you're financing the project in any way (traditional loan, hard money, etc) make sure you account for those holding coasts as well. 

If you are looking for business professionals then the downtown area would be a good choice.  

An investor I know was liquidating a lot of his holdings since he's trying to retire soon, so I convinced him to sell me a property on land contract because I wasn't going to qualify for a traditional loan, and I only had a little bit of money saved up to work with. 

If the records show a bank of some sort (I see a lot of different Bank of "fill in the blank" owned properties and some are courtesy of an LLC) will they all go to some sort of auction or traditional sale?

Many resorts will allow owners to either rent on their own or use a management company of their choice.

Welcome to the community @Timothy Choice, you can connect with local investors here https://www.biggerpockets.com/meet

I have lots of clients in the same boat- just getting started and trying to make the best possible choices as they move forward.

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum... it was a tough choice.

Or see if you can get some private funding or hard money that can roll into a more traditional scenario after Its fixed up a bit and rented?

Offended shouldn't be part of the equation especially for a buyer.I would say that some people have  looked at enough houses to know and make a choice so the wife not seeing would not worry me as much, she could be out of town.