Check the laws and personally, I would just raise the rent and pay the utilities.  4. 

I hope that does not include utilities.

A major and common complaint is that it takes (seemingly) forever for the payments to hit your bank account.

Closing delays are common. 

Joel is right about seller financing which is usually very common for the sale of small businesses.Also be in mind that as with real estate you really need to understand how to value businesses, such as ebitda multiples and such, if you want to do this correctly and will certainly require an attorney for the same as there is many more moving parts to the sale.

Another 5-7% go toward other holding costs (financing, utilities, taxes, insurance, lawn/snow, etc.). 

All the utilities are in my name, I furnished the home and do all the maintenance. 

Would I be able to utilize program benefits or start applying without being a resident of the state?

I have used Zillow and the others listed and have mixed results with it, sometimes good and sometimes not, but that's common with all methods I assume :).

ok i think what they are saying is they only make loans to LLC's which is common in the industry so they don't run afoul of dodd frank... you should have our LLC up and running before you start out anyway..