@Jay Hinrichs When a potential tenant leads out by saying they'll pay a year up front, that signals to me that they are trying to compensate for a weakness in their application.  

To me, that in and of itself, is a clear signal the market is stretched....I am waiting for a correction.....Maybe no crash, but definitely correction

Inventory levels going up means longer time on the market and that could signal a price decline.

Starting with a greedy asking price is a fundamental mistake from which it is difficult to recover and you create a negative marketing spiral - - wait 30 days to learn, oops too high so adjust the price which signals the mistake and if another 30 days lapses,you just signaled there's something wrong with the property (when in fact that's not true at all).Setting a FMV is not kid's play.

Perhaps my realtor is already giving me these signals, but I'm too dense to pick up on it.  :-)

Conventional lenders will typically only offer a HELOC on a owner occupied home, unless you have a ton of equity in the house or a special banking relationship.  2) the rate is usually variable and will increase as the Fed increases rates, which they've signaled they will be doing steadily through next year. 

I offered him $22,500 cash, with a contingency in the offer.Which to me signals we need to change the offer to about $6-7K.

(Analog signals).

That signals to me that the fundamental value add deals are drying up and investors are trying to squeeze everything they can out of the assets before dumping them and sitting on cash until a correction comes about.Lastly, I think my view is skewed since I started paying attention to the market during the recession.

Once the lender stops countering, that signals that the lender is willing to accept that amount.