Done this once after many attempts.

(viii) aids or offers or attempts to aid in locating or obtaining real estate for purchase or lease;(ix) procures or assists in procuring a prospect to effect the sale, exchange, or lease of real estate; or(x) procures or assists in procuring property to effect the sale, exchange, or lease of real estate . . ."

I was attempting to use the analysis tool on this site but the hard part for me is accurately estimating my expenses.

I think the bank's lawyers would know what you were attempting to do, and might possibly shoot the contract down.

I'm attempting to refinance a mortgage that I took over.

Questions for those more experienced.In the beginning stages of locating and securing property for investment purposes, confusion may arise as to what steps should be taken and in what order.My thoughts are that you should make every attempt to get pre-qualified by a lender, prior to even locating a property for investment.

It would be rare for a lender to allow a sale for less than what is owed, but if they do they will need to release the lien and they may not be able to seek a judgment for remaining amounts due if they failed to attempt to get the full amount from the sale.The deal illustrated by Chris would be a great deal, but probably won't happen as the purchase price is less than the mortgage, a 150K home needing 20K in repairs would be about 70% of 130K as the rule of thumb or about 90-92K.

As it stands now (and before reading all the advice) I want to attempt a buy and hold on a SFH preferably with long term tenants. 

What I did say was there are folks who have attempted to highlight NPN sales as a method to get into real property cheaper than the REO price might be.

Obviously, I am going to attempt to renegotiate the loan amount in the future and get him to settle.