The rest I believe is up to your settlement company to dig up and confirm if you're gonna be able to get clear title after the contract is signed...

In addition, since this isn't an official mortgage it doesn’t saturate my debt/income ratio freeing me up to finance additional properties through conventional means later.

It may be too late - but you can go to the county tax records and look up by address to find out who owns the property, then go to the county's "official public records" and search the name and see if there are any other liens on the property.  

They were simply scared that if you were not willing to present them with a perfectly clean home then you did not do the rest of the house correctly, (e.g. laminate flooring).

You can check out meetup.com also to try to find more, maybe less "official" RE groups that don't charge.Good luck!

To be an FHA direct lender you need to meet the following requirments: 1)Certified original audited financial statement with adjusted net worth of at least $250,000 that has been prepared within the last year.2)A senior corporate official showing at least 3 years of experience handling FHA affairs (loan origination and servicing background) 3)Multiple credit and background checks to verify legitimacy of the heads of the institution.4)$1 million warehouse line of credit or equivalent funding program to show liquidity and lending power.5)Business plans, quality control plans, E&O insurance policy, sanction letters, fidelity bonds and other formalities to provide security.As you peel the onion it makes more and more sense why some lenders offer certain services & products and why others simply don't qualify to do so.

It seems this house is the most undervalued in the lot and it's the same 3 bed 2 bath as the rest but about 200-400 less sqft as the median.

and what keeps the rest of the building from being rented?

(Taxes are over 14k).http://www.trulia.com/property/3011344661-211-Summer-Rest-Rd-Wilmington-NC-28405#photo-2

My goal is to buy our first multi family (live in one unit, rent out the rest) by then, and was wondering what the best markets for this would be.