The seller usually didn't realize or care that the buyer was there because of the inclusion of that clause in the contract, the seller's agent was spoken of in an ingratiating fashion, and the investor could present their offer in the most favorable light.

The art and jewelry schedules are occasionally more valuable than the house.

I have not underwritten anything with less than 200 units, but I assume brokers for smaller deals market properties in a similar fashion.

It often starts with boring old-fashioned acquisition though.  

I've been designing in fashion (ready to wear men's casual) professionally since 2000. 

The seller (me) gets top dollar for a sale, and monthly payments over the term of the contract (roughly 20 years) -- assuming the buyer is properly vetted and pays in a timely fashion. 

the 2nd association it resonates is the highly consumption-driven society we live in. in my area (coastal, urban southern california) i'm surrounded by 2 distinct lifestyles. there's the majority: seems like 95% of the local population who are renters, driving luxury cars, sporting fancy clothes, jewelry, hairdos, etc but obviously living paycheck to paycheck as exemplified by hardly a day somebody or the other is spotted  getting their car repo'ed by a camera crew. the rarer are the landlords, who in this area seem to be of mostly asian demographics (chinese, koreans, japanese) who live obviously very frugally: old 80s model sedan, oldfashion business cloths, always eating simple meal from home, seemingly never splurging $$$ other than into expanding their portfolio), my observance is relatively very few landlords in the area own relatively huge portfolios, each.with the advent of these infomercials and the internet (ie, BP) more and more people want to get a 'piece of the REI pie' and more power to them. there does seem to be this dream of rags to riches and while its ok to dream, do most people actually expect their life to turn around like that, as portrayed in most of the infomercials or even in the everyday setting where the masses living paycheck to paycheck, are spending their last expendable dollars not on depositing into savings acount, but blowing $20 on scratchies etc. in summary, is my observation reminds me of my days when i worked on wall st and the 'ra trace' was so obvious with dime a dozen stock brokers makin 6fig salaries at some point but blowing it on recreational drugs apparently costing thousands of dollars a pop to the point the next week they are broke again and that $ wasnt invested but wasted.  

If you and your wife can't agree on what to do then split the difference in some fashion.  

I am find with virtual coaching as well as local as long as the mentor/coach is willing to be accessible to answer questions, review deals, etc...in a timely fashion as time is truly money in real estate investing.

It was asking too much for the agent to run comps and do it in a timely fashion.