Freddie doesn't lump all self employment together into one big "treat it all the same" basket the way Fannie does.http://www.freddiemac.com/learn/pdfs/uw/docmatrix....

If you plan on prioritizing your list and going after the low hanging fruit, then I would use findtheseller.com.

You may not learn exactly what you need to be an investor, but you should never put all of your eggs in one basket. 

That's really risky and is like putting a lot of eggs in one basket.  

We have partnered up with a local commercial broker but that hasn't provided much fruit yet.

Fruits of your labor will come later.

The property can be ready to tear down but they don't see it because they've poured so much money into it over the years or had such high expectations.There is lots of lower hanging fruit out there, ie folks who do want to sell, so don't waste too much time trying to convince folks who don't want to do so.

I would have a concern with putting all of your eggs in one basket and keeping enough reserves for the unexpected.I would recommend either going smaller or reducing your risk by partnering with an experienced MF investor.  

I'd say split the fund 2-3 ways, that way it's not 1 basket and you could piggyback on the first deal and rinse/repeat on the 2nd onwards.

Thanks for the input and a good idea but unlikely fruitful enough.