You want to leave a high paid job in one of the best cities in the world in a country that actually provides things like universal healthcare to move into some small city in America?!

I have tried USAA, Bank of America, Discover and Third Federal.

Who supplies the majority of America's produce, almost all of its new tech, and almost all of its entertainment?

Small time America got zip.   

My guess is the root cause this time around is a weird interlinked syndrome of ETF inflation and zombie corporations, both further inflated by covid emergency facilities, and the unfortunate reality is that the QE spigot is likely to remain open. 1990s Japan looks like America’s fate to me lately. 

Grit - by Angela Duckworth Your Brain at Work - by David Rock*Leadership & Biographies* The Effective Executive - by Peter Drucker The Dictators handbook - by Bruce Bueno de mesquita Titan (John D Rockefeller biography) Shoe Dog (Phil Knight Biography) On the Wings of Eagles - by Ken Follett[Honarable mention] Most anything by John C Maxwell Cable Cowboy (John Malone biography) Sam Walton Made in America (Biography)*General Honarable mention:* How I Built This - podcast by Guy Raz Josh Kaufman personal MBA reading list. 

For cash flow, quite a few places in middle America, but be careful with tertiary towns. 

I admit I only skimmed your post but to answer the question you pose in the title; All the banks and servicer's I have dealt with, Chase, Bank of America, IndyMac, Ocwen and others, require the property to be listed with a realtor before they will entertain a short sale.

I was listening to a Peter Shiff on YouTube about too many housing units in America and not enough people to live in them, buying  a house being a bad investment.

A good podcast is “America’s Commercial Real Estate Show” with host Michael Bull.