He probably then pretends to be busy since it’s Friday night and see what action he can get before I start asking questions around lunch time tomorrow. 

If it was a homeowner, I'd check zillow/redfin for when they purchased, and I'd want to work with folks who have owned for at least 2 or 3 years, enough time for them to already have been burned.If it was an investor, I'd just ask them how many properties they own, looking for 2 or 3 minimum (sorry to throw you under the bus new investors, but I'm pretending to be a general contractor here, not a loan officer).If you are ONLY getting phone calls from folks that do not pass the applicable test, then I'd say you have a marketing problem (in my industry, same thing, if the LO is only getting calls from people working in fast food who don't have the income to qualify for a mortgage at local price points, that's a marketing problem).

I truly believe RDU is set for massive appreciation, though I do not pretend to have a glass ball. 

A person can buy Walmart stock and pretend they own Walmarts so I guess you can invest in a Syndication and imply  you own 50% of 9000 units like another poster on Bigger Pockets.. 

It sounds like you have a cash position that makes the second challenge not a problem, so if you do manage to find one I'd say vet it with investor math and then if it passes (no as a measure of how much it reduces the mortgage but the cash on cash return if you were to rent out the whole building, pretending you are just another renter in the math), I'd say jump on it.

Far better off to collect property before you start pretending to be the rock star rich kid.

I know you thought we would x+15 days to be safe, but we really needed +30 because we arent even as good as the competitor we pretended to be so much better than.

Before I got into a new rental market I went to homes that were being rented, pretended to be an applicant, and asked a lot of questions.

@Stephen RinaldiI think @Mike Dymski point (and I wouldn't pretend to speak for him as he has much more wisdom than I) is that there are a lot of guys on here saying words and relaying platitudes, but there's nothing behind it.

You may have pretended unit would never be vacant (keep dreaming).