When supply exceeds demand the first ones to go are the poorly located and/or the poorly outfitted. 

We're in the furniture industry so we can outfit relatively easily.  

What is the best way to form the companies (S-corp for management is separate) needed for a global real estate outfit?

I have a few outfits that do the FN loans but there is a lot of red tape and extra hoops to jump through, and the deal has to be very good and the FN client needs to be liquid, set up with a US LLC, US bank account with money in it. 

You can charge a hefty premium because with the shop fully equipped the operator saves the cost of outfitting the shop and the time and effort required.

Definitely seems like an outfit you may not want to work with for various reasons, but if they closed your first transaction then it seems they're legit...

  $18/SF actually seems pretty reasonable if they're talking about both adding Airbnbable amenities and outfitting the property as an STR.Because even just outfitting it as an STR is more expensive than you'll prepare yourself for. 

I would also suggest you maybe seek out a bigger wholesale or flipping outfit in your area that can bring you on and you can learn from them and then take those skills to do your own thing! 

Quote from @Patrick Berhan: If this is going to be a separate outfit in the company, what I would really do is have your maintenance techs be checking out the houses each time they go there for repairs.

Quote from @Judith Sullivan: Yes as the ones mentioned, Yardi and Appfolio are the highend ones, there are a couple other ones out there at your size you can look into and save a little money until you grow to a bigger outfit.