I have spent the past 6 months or so educating myself on REI as much as possible primarily here on BP by listening to countless podcasts, posting tons on the forums, analyzing hypothetical deals, networking with other investors, realtors, wholesalers, lenders, contractors and everybody in between.

Every time I walk into an older home and see wall paper I cringe....I have spent countless hours spraying and scraping old wall paper, layers upon layers, a long and tedious process that almost seems wasteful of time.How do people deal with wall paper?

Knowing Who the seller is and Why they are selling could help you negotiate in the following ways: obtaining a reduced purchase priceobtaining seller financingprovide a lease-back optionoffer an equity stake in new development vs. cash at closeThere are countless ways that the terms and structure of a deal could be altered to get you to the finish line, and sure, it's possible that you could get a win-win deal for you and the seller without knowing their true why, but just like you should always make sure you know what you're buying, you should just as well know why they are selling.

Dave I would imagine that like me you get countless private messages sent to you via BP.

That would just kill me, but countless (majority) do it with no consideration to the time, money and mental peace lost in the process. 

This seems like a great way for potential home buyers to “tour” countless homes, before taking the drive out to physically see them.

I've spent countless hours making spreadsheets and forms to 'track' information that are now lost in folders elsewhere and never actually pushed anything forward.2.)

Then, of course, there are countless ads on the site, which BP I assume is hopeful we click on, and the keywords that lead to the ads I see all over the web, etc. etc.So while the "gurus" may in fact ask you for money upfront, and some of them may in fact not be all-that-great, there's a profit motive regardless of whose perspective you choose. 

I've lurked around some various forums for a while now, but have consistently been referred to BP for investment education.Now, I'm not like some that claimed to watch countless hours of podcasts, read every book, and every forum post.

I have read many real estate investing books and done countless hours of research, but think it would be more valuable to hear from an experienced investor instead.