For knowing how much to charge, we looked at sites where our competitors would be: craigslist, trulia, realtor.com, etc. and compared our home and amenities to what they're offering. 

We looked into competitors and Danny actually owns and operates his own flipping business.

If you are selling money (and as a lender that is your product) then you need to be like any other competitor in the marketplace and be able to compete for that business.

Also, a lot of the large retail tenants love when competitors are nearby.

 I'm a Pro Member with a Market Place Ad trying to Sell Condominiums out right or by owner finance arrangement and "Charitable Trust" arrangements.  Another Pro Member with no interest in my offer on Market Place call...

We have competitors in this market but we tend to bury their ads a few pages back.

On the one hand we have buyers of new (or replacement) houses who must have loans in order to buy the home they want.In qualifying for the new homes, they must somehow dispose of their old houses.When money is "tight", the sale market slows down, placing both the builders (and their lenders) and the buyers (who must first sell their existing residences in order to qualify for a loan) into a quandary.At the same time, a portion of the market (investor/speculators) willing to absorb the surplus houses is prevented from doing so because of the same shortage of mortgage funding.The solution lies in creative financing techniques.Read on.The following pages address themselves to this parallel dilemma of the market, the builders, the lenders, the buyers, the sellers, investors and speculators.For the agile investor, CommonWealth Letters have a slogan: "THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT THERE IS BAD NEWS".In so many words, what that means is that in tough times, when credit has dried up the markets, only those who have cultivated buying, selling, fixing, management, negotiating, and financing skills survive and prosper, but, when we have prosperity in the United States, it is possible for ANYONE to succeed.Our markets are so vast, our citizens so affluent, our institutions so liberal, that practically every form of commercial activity has a theoretical and statistical chance to succeed.The problem with that scenario is that good times cause millions of would-be entrepreneurs to enter the market place.Success becomes a very competitive venture in which those with true ability are virtually in-distinguishable from those without the skills and knowledge normally required as a prerequisite to prosperity.Thus, our endeavors receive only average returns even though we might be able to contribute above average talent, energy, drive, capital, and imagination.One of the principal reasons for this is that venture capital abounds in good times.Lenders woo the untried, unskilled, untalented in an effort to place the ever increasing funds deposited within their coffers.Interest rates fall as money chases borrowers.The costs of doing business are reduced correspondingly as the cost of money falls, (then they are raised again as the costs of labor and materials escalate to meet increased demand).The ebb and flow of money and production instills a cyclical rhythm into the economy; and just as Winter follows Summer, so must hard times follow the good.In hard times, the reverse of the above holds true.Slowing economic activity causes businesses to retrench.The faint of heart drop out, others cut back on costs, materials, and labor.They slow down their payments to the banks.They with-draw surplus funds to meet current expenses.Bankers, seeing their reserves beginning to diminish, are faced with increasing loan demand from borrowers who foresee less and less certain profits with which to repay them.Interest rates are increased to meet market demand for money.Loan terms are stiffened to discount increasing risks.Money becomes tighter and tighter.Now many of us who have been waiting on the sidelines begin to see opportunities.Those builders who need buyers, those buyers who need new homes, those speculators who are stretched thin with negative cash flows; throngs of those who knew how to prosper during times of business expansion become listless and drift during periods of contraction.Our opportunity derives its strength and vitality from our being able to function in the market place without reliance on any financial institutions.Our competitors, who in prosperity were able to divert many opportunities to themselves, swiftly find themselves "on the ropes" when their lines of credit are withdrawn, because the key to their vigor was easy credit.Without readily available financing, they become ineffective.Phrased another way, those who choose to depend solely upon institutional financing will always find themselves trying to make a profit in a competitive market situation.They will be "in-phase" with millions of others, condemned to mediocre success, dependent upon good times to afford them enough of a living to be able to weather the slow periods.On the other hand, THOSE OF US WHO LEARN HOW TO PROSPER DURING HARD TIMES, WITHOUT THE HELP OF THE BANKERS, WILL BE ABLE TO OPERATE IN A NON-COMPETITIVE, PROFITABLE ENVIRONMENT.

It seems (in my limited experience) that every time one approaches a 'realtor...' they either consider an REI a "competitor?"

Most of your competitors are doing the same.

We're in NYC, a very competitive area, so if you have a thriving business, your lease is up, and the landlord knows your business is doing well, he can raise your rent substantially, and put you out of business, and then rent it to a competitor where all your former clients used to patronize.After he became a commercial landlord, my dad kept close tabs of what's going on.