The more intimate the interaction the better chance you have of uncovering what their fears and needs are which, if properly addressed, will give you a much better chance of converting that prospect into a private lender.

Rental property value is based upon its income and when your income statements are greatly flawed, value has nowhere to go but ...down..

The inspection and attorney review period uncovered some unsavory items.  

You get in contract at price X, then your inspector 'uncovers lots of problems' and you negotiate down to X-Y.  

The sellers that call in based on our marketing efforts will call into our office line and the intake sheet will be filled out to uncover details of the note and motivation for selling.

Bigger houses can appear daunting; nice staging can distract buyers if there are minor cosmetic flaws/space issues.  

Maybe you vacate the tenants, maybe you closed in 5 days cash with silly seller contingencies, maybe it's a package deal, maybe you buy it with a title flaw that can be easily solved on the resale.....dozens of things that many buyers can't/won't do.  

Is this flawed thinking?

So, any intelligent person would be pretty flawed to have a legitimate concern for living in a building where someone from Ebola has died (and let's just give it like a 3-week window period after someone in this building was infected to be appropriately cautious of contamination with neighbors).

Issues of fraud and deceptive trade practices certainly apply to commercial transactions, crossing lines can lead to other criminal charges, wire fraud is a popular charge applied as funds are usually transferred, if the mail was used in connection with the activity, mail fraud charges may be brought.When people don't have business experience or really understand underlying financial matters and try to be creative because, for one reason or another they can't perform under usual and customary practices they expose themselves greatly to scrutiny, it only takes a complaint to the right person to uncover mistakes.