I was in the same meeting and want to try premium but not sure how or what the discount coder is. 

But that's your personal decision, if you like the high cashflow with low COC.I would look at if rents can be increased or how much it would cost to put some vinyl floors, white walls, and black trim or whatever it may need to be more optical to premium rent.

For a 200k house, the annual premium is $5-$6k, which kills any cash flow.

Without cash out the rate would have been 2.75% so that gives you an idea on the premium for cash out.

Not directed at OP.People do your due diligence before closing......................lol.Many times people end up buying Junk due to time pressure.If worst come to worst and you pay taxes, you could investigate option premium selling. 

For example, if you buy a $300,000 house with 18% down and you have a credit score of 800, you will likely be closer to that 0.5% premium.

.- Vacancy Insurance - I am unsure of what the actual premiums would be for this, so I will have to call and get a quote since I was told this is usually higher premiums than rental insurance.

Some of my properties are further away >4 hours, those one's are rentals as I can't go to fix them and there are ~2 plumbers in that entire city so they charge a premium. 

No it likely wouldn't, an appraiser would most likely avoid using builder sales because they sell at a premium because they are new construction and the builder can offer all kinds of incentives and goodies to entice buyers. 

Is there a good resource for off market deals, or should I expect to pay a premium for any good RE investment here?