I am also an atheist so I do want to buy in a city with a good amount of progressive people as well.Anyways if any users own homes in any of the cities I've mentioned above or have experience investing into them I'd love to hear your opinions on them!

My advise is to not over-think it or let it stop you from your current progress.  

@Bob Starlin - Any progress finding an attorney?

There is a RE recovery fund to help with getting your funds back in these types of scenarios.I wish you all the best

I would like the feedback component so I know if a lead is still interested or needs to be discarded from future contact as well as so I can update owners on progress.  

The goal is for the partnership to progress to 50/50 on every deal. 

Is the required lease at that rate going to slow down your progress. 

Interacting face to face will help tremendously with forming those critical relationships to aid your progress.

With that said, get everything in writing and have an email trail following the progress of the deal.

You can even make multiple offers that are based upon cash, conventional financing or lease-option respectively, with each being at a progressively increased price, since needing less upfront cash may be worth a higher purchase price.