Submitting Offers Without an Agent

[Douglas Slingerland]

Per this article here.  https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2010/06/0...

The author writes about submitting offers without an agent.  Is there any tutorial or material someone can direct me towards that will help me learn what is involved in doing this?

Do I just call up the listing agent and say " i wanna pay xx dollars, here's some earnest money" ?

Thanks in advance for any advice and reference material!