I'm sure there are some attorneys in the NYC area, look for a finance attorney not a real estate attorney, call management at your banks and ask them who they use. 

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@Kama Ward I ask the seller about repairs over the phone just to get an idea of cost, but my contractor will give me a final repair cost when we visit the property.

ie. the servicing co holds the keys, and have a final % the bank needs to make and dont have to run an offer up the ladder to get it approved.

We expect our borrowers to shop around otherwise we are not really dealing with good RE investors.As lenders we must know the difference between quoting and processing, sometimes its a fine line but we must see the difference.

In one case of mine a fine when the agent wouldn't believe they didn't have the right to do that, and in another case a one year suspension when the agent told me to get lost and didn't care what the law was..An offer to buy is legal as long as it is in writing and there is a promise for a promise, in this case the promise to buy versus the promise to sell.

Sometimes things are best left unsaid until there is a final decision cause it can leave a bad taste even if things are decided in their favor.

As someone just getting into the art of investing, I can say first hand that there is a fine line between being ready to pull the trigger and jumping the gun."

Real estate investing is a fine balance between business and peoples living.  

Some require non refundable deposits others allow a finance contingency.I have done plenty of deals both ways.I recently closed a big deal where the GP team had $750K non refundable.