However, a check of the zoning showed this property was zoned for up to six stories.

Check them out on Meetup.com. 

Manage their properties Provide welcome gifts/ goodie bags for their guests before check in Hauling extra supplies/ misc items to return to stores or other properties--Any other ideas that I can pitch to make myself more marketable?

Check out PropertyRadar, similar pricing as Propstream but I found it to be better for pulling lists for vacant land.

Evan,You are going to want to check out SONYMA and Home First for NY.

Check with your lender before you do anything.

When you tell them they will only get paid when the loan closes, they will disappear.If required, the only money you should ever send to the lender is for a credit check.

What checks and balances would you need to put in place to avoid this.I am a firm believer that you should tie any bonus to a metric that the company is trying to achieve.

If you want to buy REO properties, the easiest way to narrow the market is to check the "lender owned" box on MLS.

If not and you wrote them the check, then most likely the $ is gone and suing for that money will cost you more than $1000 unfortunately.So cancel the agreement and request the funds