I have been working in a local bank for the past 3 or so years in the commercial lending department to get an understanding of financial analysis and gain knowledge from current investors.

I understand there is a lot of material and resources out there to read.

I understand your excitement about taking the plunge into real estate investing.

These 2 are not the same.From the website examples shown,  you can clearly see they have both types of credibility covered.3) Understand the process, understand the contracts, and practice looking and sounding confident and knowledgeable.Now you are ready to open your doors and have prospects discover you.Without this, you are wasting your time and effort,  looking for leads.There is more to this but those are the basics for starting.

I understand that VA loans are assumable, but I'm unsure how this affects the original borrower's ability to use their VA loan benefits in the future.

There are still a large portion of wholesale DSCR lenders that will do a 30yr fixed DSCR no problem. 8% sounds pretty standard right about now.

It's also important to understand the amount of committed capital relative to assets under management (basis, not appraised value).

I can understand a flawless track record with a limited sample size but with 8,000 investors? 

@Karl Dunlaphouse hack, live-in flip, or standard long term rental with minor cosmetics or value add

To summarize, alot of the issues you are experiencing can be mitigaged with proper contract management from the start as it offers the ability to understand staffing and the many relationships and contract participants.