It is my understanding that for investment condos, we can expect 6%+ interest rates if we insist on a 30 year fixed rate from the few lenders who will even consider non-warrantable condos.

It may help lower the cash requirement as closing if it can be negotiated that the seller pay all of the non-lender closing costs and then the maximum amount of closing cost contribution toward the lender's closing costs allowed by the lender.

Are there non-licensed people that have success stories? 

My state is a non judicial state so you can place an offer on a house before it goes to auction because techinally the seller still "owns" the house.

@Robert Naucke JrTell him you will sign a simple non-disclosure.

So my question is what approach you would take to finding non-builders (i.e. investors) to sell the contract to? 

Due to the unique vacation rental market, non-water front properties don't get the same attention, because most of the vacation rental owners are out of state.  

I would insist on either higher than market rent, a non refundable option fee, or a higher than current market price for the purchase option.

But I've always done turnkey, but lots of folks at the meetup do it non-turnkey.

You want to avoid publications that have a vested interest in people wanting to buy in the market they are talking about, and you also want to avoid larger publications because it is unlikely they have fully done their research.