He gave me the owner's number (Jeff) and I called him on the spot, hoping to be able to offer my services to help him find and sell more homes in the neighborhood.

I am expecting a day of reckoning for this model in the coming years when an LP decides to file a lawsuit based on misrepresentation which traces back to the teaching techniques of the coach/mentors who are essentially offering pay for Co-GP title courses where the students are taught they can use their GP title to raise money.

For example, I will tell them they must be out within 30 days, but they can leave at any time during that 30 days without just one week of notice.If they reject my offer, then I start to ramp up the leverage.

The seller not necessarily settled, Seller simply took the only offer they had.

This tax change could trigger even with offering contacts for those services as it could be construed as contractors.

You've signed up for one PIA if the owner is still in the house.One way to tippie toe into this is to hook up with short sale agents and start working with them offering to door knock the NOD folks. 

The seller is offering seller financing at 2% interest with a 9-year balloon.

I they accepted an offer of $118K from my brother but since he couldn't get the loan, we're starting over.

The Heloc can also pose as a debt obstacle since its an open end mortgage a.k.a credit card.a mortgage is also set up over 30 years so it offers a lower rate and payment. 

I made a relatively low offer and after one negotiation we settled on a price that was about 45% lower than the original list price.