But perhaps the listing agent might not be as trusting with Me, a random investor, calling them vs. an agent?

I did a random search of a street name and it pulled up several properties.

Of course, we end up with any random tenant, not just military but our houses are all near Air Force bases.

@Christopher Meis If you were a cash buyer, would give some random person/"wholesaler" $5,000+ BEFORE you actually closed on the property?  

We have a good one but I get nervous that he'll be irritated with the random questions I send him whenever I see an interesting deal.

If you spot somebody property on Zillow that happens to be a good deal and use some random realtor then yeah.  3% is justified.  

Within the first 3 months, two have randomly broke from “pressure”.

I am not a firm believer in luck, but random or rare things happen.

say you buy a used $150 stove from some random person on craigslist/offerup or hire a handyman for a $200 and they are taking cash only... is a ad hoc bill of sale enough documentation for these expense write offs to hold up against an IRS audit?

I know most of the online auctions in Alabama get bid down to 0% interest, and then I believe you said a random bidder is selected from all of the ones that bid 0%.