But they forced you to use their management company, took 50%, and you couldn’t use the unit more than 2 or 4 weeks per year.

In fact, an agent can get you into on market properties and when you write an offer, the rest can easily be handled by a title company / real estate attorney (depending on your area) all the way to closing. 

Finally, while on rare occasions real property does change hands a an extreme discount to market value, in the vast majority of the time a buyer, especially one without much experience thinks they’ve stump;ed across the “deal of the century”, they’ve mispriced the actual value because of something not readily apparent hasn’t been considered.  

I know my main investor friendly title company says 70% of those deals that get turned in to them don't close.

A company by the name of “Saluda Grade” contacted me explaining they took over their debts however, they are not buying back the property as we originally agreed with STOA. 

If you're unsure about the legalities or the best approach, consulting with a property management company familiar with local laws or a real estate attorney could be invaluable.Best of luck with your new property and navigating this transition smoothly!

I’m the owner of a newer General Contracting company serving the area, we started operating in September last year.

To me that is buying stock in a company that primarily owns real estate. 

I would suggest to connect to other local investors as much as possible to network, educate yourself, make connections with title companies, contractors, wholesalers, hard money lenders etc, those will prove vital to your success.

To illustrate my point, let's look at the last major crash in housing prices.