I frequently use Skype to chat with my clients.

Demand is high, so winning offers arent frequent.

These are quite common and they are oftentimes packaged with acquisition financing.Banks, HMLs (hard money lenders) and private lenders are frequent providers of this kind of financing.Fairly common terms might be something like;80% of purchase and 100% of construction financed with an LTV (loan-to-value) maximum of 75%.In this case, the lender would finance 80% of the purchase price and 100% of the construction on a reimbursement basis (you provide the initial capital outlay for the construction, and then it's reimbursed based on an inspection and construction draw).The leverage allows for the borrower to make a higher cash-on-cash return and potentially do more projects faster than they would be able to without using debt. 

Most HML that work in states that don't require licenses get around it by doing commercial purpose loans to LLCs this is why U see this requirement so frequently.  

Tom Wheelwright is a frequent contributor to various real estate podcasts and has written at least one book that I'm aware of. 

Creative financing is a topic that comes up frequently.

I chose my particular custodian without checkbook control because of lower setup fees, didn't want to deal with LLC annual reporting, and I didn't intend to have frequent transactions.

I am new to property management obviously, so I dont know if that's something that happens frequently and if I will get the tenants angry if I do so.

I see this frequently.

@Josh Carr, while that is frequently so, it is not always the case.