They wanted to advertise the house, get a buyer, have me sell to the buyer at the higher price, give them the profit over the option price.

If you don't have a buyer's list, you can get the house under contract and advertise on Craigslist. 

I also want to add that I have no financial support other than what I earn (no wealthy family, trust funds, or inheritance) so I don't have anyone or anything to bail me out if things go south.

I'm not sure if your cash flow will support that though.  

To help raise money on the deal, I'd be advertising the modified, "happy dance" deal to your database and marketing for future JV partners.Yes, you can co-name your funding partners on the assignment of mortgages...that's a very common practice and done all the time.  

There is also the distinction between passive custodians such as listed on the nuwireinvestor page referenced and advisory firms that implement and support plans offering checkbook control.I strongly applaud your desire to have the IRA piece figured out before pursuing opportunities, as that is critical to your investing success as well as IRS compliance.Check out a handful of companies, both on the passive custodian and checkbook control side of the equation.  

It also supports my claim that the "Rental/Lease Application" process that has been crafted to protect owners, has been turned into a cash cow for Agents.

I'm digging the advice and support in this thread.So basically, I have a few options that revolve around developing either an S Corp or LLC...- Develop said entity in the state where I'm investing-OR- - Develop said entity in the most tax favorable state of one of my partnersI'm assuming the former is probably more along the lines of what I want to do.

Conventional lenders want to see operating data that supports the loan. 

The rent is just not high enough to support the costs of owning and maintaining a house.See: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/01/20...And: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/03/03...