@Cindy Ace Bradford White, Whirlpool, and a few other vendors sell 40 - 50 usg lowboy hot water heaters (<32" tall).  

Our motivation is to buy condo's off the popular beaches, where tourist are investing, and lease, and/or rent out the condo to vacationers, or long term visits by corporate vendors.

I would say that basing a purchase / model based on price you may only end up with the cheapest vendor not the best fit for you.

@Dana Holland put everything in writing to the vendor , email will suffice, as well as any requests from the tenant must also be in writing.

Hello Nick, my company brokers for many vendors.

They also hype their "vendors list" but the vendors pay to be on that list.  

Many vendors offer RUBS, but most won't entertain <50 units.

I would want my own title company — along with the vendors they continuously put their faith in — conducting all aspects of my transaction.

What someone could do is open their own lines of credit to my local vendor and assign me as authorized representatives, then simply pluck me out when the project is done, since all the materials are delivered directly to site and there is only one jobsite (set authorized reps can't add sites and no will calls), it assures the owner that no materials are diverted, if they are, it falls under theft and CGL will cover it once claims filed.

I keep the rentals full and we do have a lot of military and civilian vendors for the military that bring people in regularly.