I don't want to go under the nose of a real estate agent at all.  

Con tal que ellos esten recibiendo los pagos a tiempo, en general no se preocupan.  

It takes just putting the nose to the grindstone and talking to people to get a sense of what is available to you and what lenders may be a good fit for you.

Sticking their nose to it and inhaling sharply?

They are a 'hold your nose and buy' purchase, because buyers value them, and sometimes they make a house sell more quickly.Don't forget to read about all the exclusions in the pages of fine print.

Stockton will be a much tougher sell for most of you than Sacramento, for all the reasons I listed here in my guide on how/where to invest in Stockton (still highly relevant):https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/627/topics/424510-how-to-invest-in-stockton-ca---a-detailed-overviewA large part of the reason most investors turn their nose up on Stockton is because of all the bad headlines.

I grew up in 33604, just up from the River and near Lowry Park, but talk about an area taking a nose dive, sad to see! 

It also seems to me you get no SE tax and eligibility for 1031s traded against losses against ordinary income capped at $25k if you are a NON dealer/professional.

I'd also very much agree that a lot of people out there chasing dollars have no idea what they are doing and many wouldn't recognize a good deal if it punched them in the nose. 

Hope you had a great time talking to @David C.Let's put things in perspective:Bay Area real estate = expensive to through the nose expensiveOut of state real estate = cheap to sooooo cheapTesla = expensiveFord Focus = cheapAs you can see, everything in life has a price.