The jerks, even the amateurs, don't get the phone number. 

I am selling a rental and had the deal fall through due to an amateur/poser investor. 

I wouldn't considered myself an amateur though because I haven't actually purchased any properties yet.

They will be able to answer your questions more accurately in an hour then hundreds of posts from a mix of amateurs to experts on a forum can do for you. 

We have received one bank statement and it looked amateur at best.

This landlord is an amateur.

In retrospect, this was probably all a big defensive show, an amateur's bumbling way to try to train a student living in an obviously illegal basement apartment.

My take, as a complete non-lawyer amateur, is that the lawyers get paid out of the 350k and very little is left for anything else.  

Adrian,you need to find buyers and have their contact information ready Before you look for properties.Each potential cash buyer has their own desires and minimum standards to aspire to when looking for new projects.You need to find 3 types of buyers and create a list,hard money amateur flippers,landlords who want to expand their holdings,and your fallback position which are professional all cash buyers.Amateurs who use expensive hard money loans and naive cash gap funders are the best for potential profits because they are too new and actually think $25,000 profits are a lot of money.You can get 25 to 35% "finders fees" because they really don't know how much you agreed the seller would get paid and how much you are charging them for the property.However,they need time to get organized and get their financial ducks in a row so your contract with the seller needs to be at least 3 weeks to 45 days before escrow closes to make it work.If the seller is only giving you 5 to 10 days, you go to your professional buyers with all cash and they might give you 5 to 10% at best because they want the biggest profits possible without you getting in the way.But with them,you can get paid in 72 hours or less all cash and move on to the next property.

Finding the right property manager is a big decision that will have a HUGE impact on the success (or lack thereof) of your rental business.In my conversations and experience with a number of property managers, I've found that some of them are EXPERTS who are very good at what they do, while others are total amateurs...