I put "EM to be delivered by certified funds with 48 hours of contact acceptance."

Josh I have talked about this many times.On the residential side all these scammers used to exist.Sell the loan off so they didn't care and closed up shop when it fell apart.Now that residential is under huge government regs they have all moved to the commercial side.All of these people advertising many are just helpless point and fee takers getting sucked up into the scam.Many of these so called lenders are not lenders at all but mills running due diligence fees,insurance fees,deposit fees etc. and then say they can't fund later on to deny the deal.I have found direct lenders are very hard to find and I find one of those for every 20 scammers.As a buyer you do not pay upfront fees except for appraisal,survey etc.You can talk to these scammers on the phone and can tell by what they say they are not a true lender.I do very heavy lifting to make sure my lenders are real and I am not dealing with a middle man to protect my clients buying properties through me.Any company claiming to be a lender that will fund anything is more of a conduit (middle man) taking fees.A reputable lender will display recent closings and details of the loan.They will have very detailed rate sheets along with terms and conditions of the program.Any points will only be paid at closing when they perform.Many of these lenders will be highly specialized in a particular asset class and not broad in scope.The interest rates from legit lenders will be very close in percentage rate and LTV's.The difference being in how much money they have to lend and what loan size they specialize in and recourse versus non-recourse etc.Many lenders can promise but very few can deliver on the rates promised and close it.

But, if the office is not local, you'll have to overnight it, so you really have to have everything together the day/evening before it's due.But, between the time you get the acceptance email and the time you need to send/deliver the stuff, you can use that time for inspections and to make sure the deal is as good as it seems.

My attorney used a form that closely followed the Realtor form, and covered the key contingencies like inspection, financing, and the seller delivering clean title.Hope that helps,- Tom

Contract likely not official until short sale approval from lender comes in.Make sure property is delivered vacant (free of owner) at closing or don't close.

It starts when the notice is executed and properly delivered.

Lane Ewert Once you have plans, one suggestion might be for you to get bids from some GCs that would deliver a "shell" to you, getting all the work on the lot done and hooked up, slab and drive way installed, framing, plumbing and electrcal in, siding on house and roof.

It will be delivered with a tenant in place (that I will help qualify) and the other side rent ready.

If they want to deliver it later, they have many ugly options (and no good ones, AFAIKT)... mail a signed money order??

Assuming that you are focused on listed property find a good buyer's agent who will deliver.