@Daniel PattersonPick-up a copy of @Frank Gallinelli's "What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow" and/or seek out @J Scott's blog post(s) on discounted cash flow.

He also offers discount codes to save some $ too.

Time Value of Money and Discount Rates)?

Now, she wants to continue the $100 discount since I sent her an email saying that the discount would continue until the grass is in.  

If that's the case, then it seems that ROI might go down since the discount of equity goes away in the calculation?

that may help you to get a discount to its actual value.

Most of all, start getting the work out that you want (not only REO but) any house that you can purchase at a discount, and start writing offers.

But you can cash flow on a SFR with ARV of up to ~$150K if you get enough of a discount.

Some of those banks will also have retail operations, but generally you will get a better rate/fee combo through wholesale (the dozen loans per month mortgage broker gets volume discounts) than if you called that exact bank or lender directly (average consumer gets 1 mortgage every 3-7 years + marketing budget needs to be baked in).

I know of one that invests in notes, the discount and due diligence really helps reduce the risk, but of course any investment carries a degree of risk.