I have seen builders in OKC that were fine making 10 to 15k a house.. but they will slam 100 of them out in a year so they make 1 mil to 1.5 mil profit and seem to be happy with that..  

And others want a big yard for the family and to not be 15 feet away from the house right next to you.Now, that's all fine information.

2.75-3x is generally fine. 2.5x in really poor areas. 

Now personally I would never have taken a client there without a written agreement between you and me, If you are not paying a buyers agents commission that's fine and your choice.

Everything would be based on trust (which I'm fine with.)So has anyone done this before?

LA is a sprawl of smaller cities where people live and work, and most of those cities are fine. there’s a reason the south bay attracts residents and companies, and it’ll be a long long time before those fundamentals shift.  

Assigning to related/interested parties is fine, but if you market your position in the contract in order to assign it for a fee, that's a no-no. 

Tenant shall be subject to a fine of $ _____________________ for any violation of thisparagraph, and Tenant agrees to pay any such fine upon receipt of Landlord’s demand therefor.

Hey that's fine, my suggestion is to listen biggerpockets podcast where people talk about interviewing agent all the time.

This is fine, but that is why they struggle and never get ahead.