I had already had a great phone conversation with Bob Dreher and am on their investor list.

TLDR: Pre-approval seems like a good thing but it can lead to lost bookings or a time sink (has anyone spent less than 20-30 minutes on the phone with VRBO trying to fix something??).

You don't have to spend money  out of the pocket on searching Redfin, making some phone calls, making offers and posting ads on Craiglist or whatever local media you want to use to sell the property.

Whitestone was very evasive on the phone call I had with them.Appreciate the input.

Her communication was abysmal, was only ever able to speak to her once on the phone. 

So, I called the phone number listed on his email, and it would pick up, have a recording that said "this call will be recorded," and then hang up on me!

As I expressed on the phone and I have already spoken with Rick as well, I am confident that we have the inventory that meets your needs to build out your portfolio in a faster time frame.  

What is said on the phone or in their marketing matters not.

I talked to numerous California investors in real life and phone/Zoom calls who have lost money in far away OOS markets, mostly Midwest markets (e.g. repairs, capital expenses, bad tenants, properties vandalized while under renovation, evicted tenant stole all the appliances, property managers with high fees or overcharging for repairs).

I've been through 2 sets of more tradional batteries (Deep Cell and AGM) before the cost of a lithium battery became affordable.