I  can give yu some good pointers though PMGood Luck"@Jason - I was intrigued by your response because my partner and I was literally talking about the very same topic today (absentee mailings).Part of our discussion was mailing to "owner occupied" properties with equity.Obviously there are some minor disadvantages of course such as "waiting for them to move (longer close times)", etc but I agree with your methodology of "thinking outside the box".I'm seriously interested in what you are "doing different" in terms of mailing parameters for these "owner occupied" properties.I don't expect you to "give anything away" nor am I expecting any handouts but my partner and I have dissected this subject over and over and it would be nice to have some insight from someone who is actually having success with these "owner occupied" lists.I'm local here to the SF Bay Area as well and I can't even begin to tell you how many calls I get from people who complain about receiving so many different inquiries from others trying to "buy their house".Any additional insight you can provide on the forum or via PM would be GREATLY appreciated..Jimmy

With so little inventory and bid wars , and hundreds of showings of each property to some fake buyer who never intends to buy house, I don't think Erics in this game are in any particular disadvantage compared to "licensed" REAs (licensed is in quotation marks,  since a lot of people seem to put too much significance into obtaining it, as if it was a law degree from Ivy League school).

I would suggesting posting in the Canadian forum to understand the advantages and disadvantages associated from a Canadian point of view.

The fact there is no HOA is probably an advantage not disadvantage. 

No disadvantage to using your own buyer's agent, and as a first timer well, "you don't know, what you don't know".

Carl,HUD has many disadvantages: 1.

If I misread the linked article, my apologies.Unfortunately, as the links in the article indicate, there is research evidence aplenty that certain names bring disadvantage over others generally in the US--e.g. one finds more opportunity with a name like Ron than Jamal. 

The only thing that is disadvantage your not on other booking sites.

However, this puts me at a disadvantage compared to cash buyers, since I'm not as liquid.

Neither approach is without problems, both have advantages and disadvantages.