University Area: It's a hotspot for students and faculty due to its proximity to educational institutions, ensuring a steady rental market.

I've discovered that explaining our requirements to potential tenants even before they view the property has been extremely beneficial.

As Wayne Brooks said above, anything publicly listed (REOs, HUD, Homepath, etc.) has already been seen by the agents who represent the institutional buyers.If you happen to get one of these under contract for a price below what another investor will pay (unlikely these days), you can definitely still do a double close, assuming there is no resale restriction from the seller.That said, if you have these large institutional investors in your market, you're probably going to want to focus on off-market deals that these guys aren't finding themselves.

So I got to deal with institutional investors, I got to sit in on acquisition meetings hearing how they approach acquisitions and operations.  

I just discovered this opportunity a few weeks ago.

Before you say "I am a fiduciary" please go submit your ADV or regulatory documents to the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard as I have and get third-party approval that you are in fact a fiduciary. 

Local banks are more tailored for conventional programs, so you may want to look into institutional companies that specializes in commercial financing.

If an institutional lender is happy at 50% LTV to a foreign national and the seller will supply another chunk of the debt (for example, 30% 2nd), you might end up in a fine situation for financing.4.

A sub-to impacts a lender much, much more than Pace disciples realize...so yeah, I called loans when we discovered them. 

Subsequently, we discovered multiple leaks in the roof, resulting in water damage on the top and bottom floors, including mold growth in our closet on the bottom floor.