you are not likely to be able to engage anyone to evict the occupant for quite some time if the occupant has a wifi signal and can read, as the litmus test to be eligible for federal eviction protection enacted by the CDC is very low.That said, when you can evict, just goodle "Eviction" and "Attorney" in your area and you'll find lots of players.

Be aware that a lot of investors are mailing to the Absentee Owners, so you will be competing with other offers in their mailbox.

This is what will give you the ability to stand out from the crowd of other REI's, all competing for the same morsels...trying to buy low and sell high. 

The player for those old episodes needs to be updated - we're working on that.

Sure, there will be investors out there to compete with, but they can't know everything about every market niche. 

One day at a time, we're hedging forward together :-)Regarding 203k renovation loans (which is what I'm sure you meant), I have a ton of experience with them...and they are great, when the right players are involved and all pieces of the puzzle are put together right. 

Lumber prices are especially high at this point due, in part, to consumers competing with commercial demand so I'd imagine that's factoring into the numbers but in general prices tend to go up or at best flatten for a time period.

I've met those 3 core players all in person and they all seem like genuine people I can trust who know what they're doing.

Bottom line my question is, how can I as a well qualified individual for a loan offer compete with investors and flippers that offer cash.

Like in football, if one team has only one player and the other has a full field of players--the more people team will win.In short, your efforts (combined with the efforts of others) might be more powerful (help more people) than going it alone.And you can make a lot of like minded friends along the way.Guys like Tony don't make things happen all by themselves--they team up with others: https://www.feedingamerica.org/about-us/partners/current-promotions/1-billion-mealsGood Luck!