All kinds of stories of people "negotiating" with people in their 90's or someone who just lost a parent leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Nothing makes me happier when I am selling a hard to sell property than when someone unrepresented wants to buy it.

My direct  RE holdings & development investments I am continuing to do closer to home and am much happier that way.  

I then found a seller through word of mouth.

@Noah Scott Luxury House Hack or no Luxury House Hack, who the hell would want to stay with those loud mouths...lol

Word of mouth definitely does travel so you'll find a good one as long as you ask people you know who just recently had work done to their house and if the pictures of there work looks good to your standard because bad work is unacceptable. 

I'm a CRE broker in NYC and can tell you that 90%-95% of the deals done are word of mouth knowing the right people to send it to.

Have you heard of customer experience or word of mouth advertising?

If I could do that, I would be infinitely happier.

I would prefer to find someone I hope to trust though word of mouth rather than an internet ad.