In the absense of knowing who the lender is, it's difficult to determine if what you are experiencing is SOP (standard operating procedure)---I work with investors that will issue a POF in 24-48 hours with min. information on the borrower/property, while others take longer as they quantify the merit of the deal.

The advice you are getting above is very sound and there is a lot of merit in picking 1 and sticking with it. 

But, I want to expand on one additional merit of financing:If you have 80K cash, you don't have 80K to spend.Buy-and-holders MUST keep a cash reserve.

If the investigator deems it has merit they will proceed but if not they will drop it.

That seems like there could be some merit to that strategy or am I completely off base.  

The merits of a self storage facility are dependent on a lot of things but size of town is not one of them.

Use my PETIO format found elsewhere here on BP for researching vacant property.Once you know and have confirmed the equity and the opportunity has merit, you can start by using skip tracing software or services to identify and locate your target (record owner). 

I think both approaches have merit, but I prefer to park the equity in long-term projects.

The broker/agent is NOT required to submit offers to the note holder.The broker/agent is only required to submit to the seller.The broker/agent can then advise the seller of whether the offer has merit and is worth submit to the bank for a chance at an approval.Brokers/agents doing short sales for awhile know what numbers banks are wanting to hit.If the offer or terms are so off the mark then the broker/agent will advise the seller to counter back the offer at terms the senior note holder will likely accept.For REO brokers the banks are repeat clients.For unproven investors you are trying to get a one off transaction at an ultra low price to start your investing career and build cash.So the REO brokers care about the banks their cleints much more than you "getting a steal".

Or, you could consider their advice to be solid if somehow they could send you their tax returns privately for 2009 and if they reported more than 200k in gross income from the business of wholesaling - then maybe buy the course they recommended.Assuming that doesn't happen(or couldn't, because no posters who replied here could furnish this information because they don't meet these requirements), then maybe a few ides could be of value, instead of such concrete opinions.1) Education and study with real estate professionals does carry substantial merit, if you can independently verify that other people have applied themselves and met with success from such courses and study.