Of course, you need to read The Ultimate Beginners Guide to REI here on BPIf you haven’t already, please read/listen to these books ASAP!

Reach your hand out and guide that same person assisting them along the way and then they will appreciate it.

As an old river rat and raft guide, it makes me very sad.

Is there a Sub2 for Dummies kind of primer that I can use as a guide for talking with her? 

There's also a good Getting Started guide as well as these forums.But ultimately, you need to decide what type of 'real estate investor' you want to be.

To find a hard  money lender, you may want to try the scotsman guide. www.scotsmanguide.com.

The back of the home has a hole in the wall and one of the structural beams has been impacted - it appears as if it has suffered some light damage, although nothing major.

The landlord sets the rent (using the market as a guide), the landlord selects the tenant, the landlord selects the lease, the landlord chooses who will do a repair (even if it is the tenant), the landlord decides whether or not pets are allowed, openly or tacitly, the landlord decides whether to have a monthly or yearly agreement, the landlord decides when to replace the carpet, the landlord decides on whether or not to provide appliances (again using the market as a guide), I could go on and on, but the key point is that the landlord is making the vast majority of key decisions.  

If you haven't yet, be sure to check out the The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing and The BiggerPockets Podcast.

(Horizontal cracks are a big deal, vertical cracks not as much), condition of main beams (if it has wooden structural components, is there wood-destroying insect damage?)