I have succeeded, after a few tries, in obtaining the e-mail of an individual who can submit my request to be a qualified buyer/disposer of distressed assets.

But it takes awhile to build your team of qualified repairmen, and the smaller the economic region the fewer your opportunities are to find reliable "team". 

Since this is the case, be careful obtaining a heloc right before you try to get another mortgage as you might not qualify for the new loan on a dti basis.

All of my mentors would tell me to qualify buyers but has never told me how to do that because they wanted to sell their program. 

Why take in 5 applications and waste time starting to screen them when they're not actually serious or won't qualify?

Decide if you are willing to get a fixer upper, and determine if each property is an area you'd be willing to live in.If your wife is willing, pool credit with her to qualify for a bigger loan (yes they need her SSN for that).  

Am I not turning over the right rock to find qualified people at this price point?  

You need to be "pre-qualified" financially before making offers, they simply determine what you can qualify for, it is not a loan commitment.

Matt,If you are offering your tenant the option to purchase its customary for the tenant to pay a fee to buy the house for $x dollars in so many months or years to give them time to get qualified to buy the house.

If the primary borrower can't pay the mortgage, the noteholder will absolutely protect their own interests and go after the partner regardless of whether or not their name is on the deed.This situation happens all the time in divorce cases where one ex-spouse quitclaims the house to the other but later finds out they can't qualify for a loan because the the mortgage is still under both their names and is killing their DTI.