I am attending all the REIA meetings in this area and getting to know the players.

Private lenders are relatives or friends who have money in lousy investments (cash, CD's, etc) that you can offer a greater return with more security to borrow.Realtors have no clue how to present a seller finance offer. 

The serious deal seekers and commercial players are nomally the ones that actually make a full time living/profession in this field.

I'm a fairly new player in the RE scene, but can tell you a few things out of my personal experience.

Get familiar with the way the market ebbs and flows, know the local players and make sure you become a household name for your niche if you decide to do this full time.It is my personal opinion that you should be able to figure out if a deal is worth calling the seller's agent after 45 seconds of spreadsheet work, not 13 pages.

I figured my heart was in the right place, but as a more novice investor, you always want validation from a more experienced player in the game.

If your end buyer is serious about the deal and is an actual player, the amount won't really matter because they plan to go through with it anyways.  

To me your post sound like your insurance company weaseled you out of your Kenwood CD player out of your Chevy Cobalt and your still unhappy about.

You can use GetResponse, Aweber or Constant Contact..these are the to players when it comes to autoresponders. 

If you define a  low/no risk investment such as a bank insured CD @ 2% - then another way of saying that is that there is a 2% chance that you will lose money (I know not a direct correlation).