@Adam Fischer My partner and I have a commercial building (20,000 sq ft event center) on 8 acres currently under contract here in Ohio.

I highly recommend attending a few monthly networking events/meetups!

I would suggest looking up their monthly calendar and going to one of their monthly events in conjunction with a visit to the area.

@Elmurat Bavlankulov - BP Events lists a good amount and as @John Warren mentioned we keep a running tally of events at the Straight Up Chicago Investor website.

@Chris Lena get this guy to the event. 

Maybe I just need to come in at a higher dollar figure to make it worth it, I have been wanting to buy one or two notes to start with and get a feel for how much it would cost me to liquidate a property in the event of default.

In this event you will be able to purchase the property for less money now and refinance at a lower rate when interest rates drop, making your deal that much better!

Join local investment groups or go to events.

What is common practice as far as the contractual agreement between the agent and the buyer in the event the seller does not pay or only pays a portion of the agreement (i.e if the seller only pays 1-1.5%)?

The things that really matter are first are you ready, no life events, no job changes, no issues taking your attention.