Or is it a MLM approach, providing a main source of income for the gurus/coaches to go fund their own deals?   

As long as you promote your properties for rent on the main channels, such as Zillow(One of the best, as it crawls quite a few sources), AZ Republic/AZ Central (Heavily read by many PHX residents), East Valley Tribune, Craigslist (inferior, due to scamming and lack of reach, but still works and free), etc, you will generate a lot of interest.

So we arrive at the property today, the AC was running the fridge had food in it and it was running.

Not sure where you're from but there is much better food than the Riverwalk =) 

I've looked at rentometer, craigslist, hotpad, zumper, and other sources out there.

I use propstream for one source of leads and to do smaller post card mailings.  

You should also ask where they source their data from.

I wrote a detailed post on Reddit about how I passed the CA brokers exam without paying for any course (only used free study sources in other words).

Does anyone have any advice on funding or sources of money which might help me through this issue?

Save money on paying rent, building equity and creating a future revenue source How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?