Newby in MD - HELP!

[Katrina P.]

Hello everyone!

I am a newby to Real Estate investing. I stumbled across this website last week, and boy have I learned a LOT since being here. Thank you guys for being so willing to share your knowledge :D.

So I've been looking in the various banks' inventories of REO properties, and I found one that I'd like to bid on. It was listed for $232,000, and I think that the most recent comp was for $215k in April. When I told the Agent that I would be willing to place an offer for $150k (70% of the ARV of $215k. Since it's in move-in condition, I didn't factor in any repair costs), he basically laughed at me, and told me that offer is an "insult in this business". It made me feel really stupid. So can anyone offer me any advice concerning getting started? Are you guys getting your offers laughed at? I'm guessing that the issue is that the property was overpriced to begin with, and I should have not even told him I'd make an offer, after hearing of the comps? This Agent also told me that this particular property hadn’t gone to the foreclosure auction yet, and “when it does, you won’t see it again because the investors will snatch it upâ€. Is he just telling me anything? I also have a few other questions:

1. When using transactional funding, I don't have the option of rehabbing, right? So I can only flip by selling "as-is"?
2. Are the better deals in HUD REOs, FNMA REOs or others?
3. Are EMDs ALWAYS necessary up front? In other words, can I submit an offer, stating that "an EMD of $___ will be submitted within 48 hours of bid acceptance"?

Thanks in advance for any willingness to help!

Katrina