I've also heard great things about "Think and Grow Rich" and "How to Win Friends and Influence People", both of which I've found and downloaded for free online.

Depending on how recently this occurred, this may be influencing your approval for a loan, though one late payment should not be all that bad.  

I think I need to do some more networking to find the right people up here so that I may have better influence around me.

The listing price, and contract price, have no influence on what price the bank will accept.

. , Not that I'm aware of.. but you may have a business plan on your hands..You could collect premiums from the human, then deny the claim because the animal was subject to undue influence if it didn't agree to the policy.Pretty standard insurance practice.

A personal residence however often involves more than just running the numbers and can have plenty of other influences in the final decision.

If you have questions, by all means don't let me influence you using BP for any reason now or in the future.

Also the individual property can influence how the seller would react, even in a strong sellers market there can be individual properties that have issues with them that make them very difficult to sell so the seller might consider any offer presented.For instance we recently sold a nice townhome in a nice community, within a week we had 3 cash offers, two of which were 6-7% over asking, further they waived appraisals.

You can also look under the Economy heading and see household incomes, unemployment rates and job growth for the area which can all influence rentals for that area.

A lender should do their due diligence before suggesting a deed in lieu, I'm sure Mike would.In suggesting that a deed would be accepted. a lender needs to take care as to simply stating the facts of a deed acceptance and the factual benefits for a borrower.That letter should have another letter enclosed, from the borrower to the lender, requesting that the lender accept a deed in lieu, this shows that the borrower was not unduly influenced from the initial letter and that they are requesting an option to resolve the matter they may not have been aware of.