However, in residential I buy everything direct to seller. 

If your home is in a solid area and you can hold onto it while having even some cash flow, I would usually pick that option.From the experience I have seen with my dad and holding properties long term and conversations I've have with older investors is that if you hold onto RE, you will usually be happy you did so.Most investors say: I never really regretted buying, but I have regretted selling. 

We are interested in buying our first rental OR flip.

Tom Henderson puts out a good book ...you can get either hard copy or pdf......The challenge with most of this seems to be FINDING notes to buy from private sellers. 

We have a company that buys Non-Performing Loans and, as a secured creditor, we love seeing BK paperwork.

I know this is not your "typical" reason to refinance, however, I am wondering what you all think about using that equity on a home purchase as buying a home right now is extremely important to us not only for just having a home, but also prices will not come down for quite some time with our housing shortage.  

I work specifically with out-of-state investors to buy, sell, and manage their rentals homes.

Investment Info:Condo buy & hold investment.

They tend to prefer stuff in decent condition and in their buy box.

I am looking to buy an investment property with it, and any advice/guidance would be greatly appreciated.