I have been approached by a company looking to rent it out on behalf of 4 employees.  

I recently posted about how to approach learning to estimate rehab costs, and got a ton of responses.

In my original plan I started at an end number (monthly passive income) and worked backwards based on cash flow but I am rethinking that approach to not limit my growth. 

I know of a house that is empty and the owner plans on selling eventually, what would be the best way to approach them?

Isn't this self-directed approach a no-brainer?

@Jay Dewberry's suggestion looks great, but I can think of a less attractive and no doubt less expensive approach.

I know shopping around is key to get the best rate, but I was just wondering if anyone else had any recommendations on the best approach to take when speaking with lenders/good questions to ask when going through that process.

This weekend (2/27/16) I plan to approach a seller (actually a MLS seller's agent) of a SFH in my target zone in desperate need of a rehab.

Charles... another approach is for you to buy the home, do the rehab,etc. 

There are at minimum three approaches to determining value for any given piece of real estate: sales comparison, income, and cost.