If you have been paying the loan on time for 6 months, you will have already built some credit history (hopefully they are reporting to the credit agencies like they are required to by law), which will make this a useful loan (even though you paid through the nose for it) In a few short years, this will be a distant memory because you will have built credit solidly by following a plan.

The agent said there was no way for the agency agreement to be written so it's applicable to only this property.How do I get around this/not have to commit to working with this person outside of this particular property?

Depending on what you need it might be enough.A true skip trace tool like Accurint or TLO will pull data from credit reports, tell you where they work, show criminal and driving records, show possible relationships to other people, past addresses, aliases, and other tools that law enforcement, collection agencies, PI's, etc need to try to find folks who are missing or hiding.

Check with your local RE agencies because sometimes you can get free training if you sign up with their company and with RE there is no commitment they just want to try to attract as many agents as they can and offer some incentives at times. 

And if not, how do you avoid the costs of going through someone or an agency?

The listing agency has changed.

A doctor or other medical professional, a peer support group, a non-medical service agency, or a reliable third party who is in a position to know about the individual's disability may also provide verification of a disability.

If you have not already: I would include agency costs (if any), utilities if the tenant is not paying them, vacancy rate costs, and also some future maintenance costs.

I've heard things like getting jobs at real estate agency's to get experience but I'm not looking to be an agent so I'm not sure if that's the right way to go.

I'm trying to find a company (or government agency) that can do a title search for me on some properties in Redmond - who has a recommendation of where I can get this done?