Not sure anyone else has ever experienced this behavior but I never replicated the nautilus effect that I had originally. The best alternative I found was sublime sftp.
Installed by sublime package control:
https://sublime.wbond.net/installation
Then install sublime sftp:
http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/sftp
I was a student coding in php for a class so I was only using it temporarily and never paid for the license. Probably should do that if you are gonna be using it long term.