As housing gets more expensive, buyers may have to buy condos/townhomes as their first home so don't discount the future of your journey, now.

Also, we all have about the same rates - so pick someone you like and you have confidence in.If you have a lender with substantially lower rates than everyone else, you are paying for that rate in the form of origination fees and discount points.

I've heard they can be done through software?

Here are some things to consider:Most investors don't need software until they have 5-10 rentals.

Point being - you don't know what you don't know about what you are buying at foreclosures - so you are getting that discount for taking that risk.I would also point out that at 8% interest - VERY LITTLE cash flows well.  

There are rental management software programs you can leverage at a fairly reasonable price, which is what I used to get started (I'm still a newbie).

The agent isn't probably negotiating a steep discount with a builder. 

Keep track of this communication in PM software so you have a good record of it.When communication is silent there a high probability something isn't right.

IE pull the cash out of it so I could go buy more timberland to log.. get payments from my buyer .. pay the bank their payment then when my buyer cashed me out I cashed out the bank and got my equity... for me it was not as much a tax play as a get stuck money out now without massive discount to a NOTE buyer pimper .. who is looking to get notes with massive discounts. 

If there is no real estate agent involve we provide the 2% discount back to our customers or we are happy to pay the buyers broker such fee.