By what moral imperative are you constrained to have these worries about meeting and working with strangers and I do not?

General answer talking to a stranger on a street, i say use the FHA to buy a multifamily property, lower barrier to entry and you get that land lording experience under your belt and documented.

I have borrowed hundreds of thousands (per transaction) on many occasions from strangers as well as family and personal contacts.

How comfortable are you going to be with a houseful of strangers around your kids? 

For buyers that can't get a mortgage, it's still cheaper than a HML.Thank you Rob K for this information, was an utter stranger to me.

Since the world is no stranger to you, you might be interested in diversifying your investments to real estate outside of the U.S.

Should I seek out a complete stranger agent?

(Stranger part is that the foreclosure was the result of the wife shooting her husband as he was leaving the divorce lawyer's office in the center of town...)Favorite: boxes of pre-Civil war books and maps.  

If they were a stranger how much time would you invest?

The thought of a stranger in our house for hours does scare me a little.