The reason that our politicians can get away with what they are doing is because we are too afraid, or too weak, or too concerned with American Idol to stand up and vote them out of office when they aren't doing what they should.

It certainly won't strengthen U.S. banks and lead to an abundance of lending.From what I have heard, (I listen to podcasts like, APM:MartketPlace & The Economists, along with The Real Estate Guys), and because the dollar is weak, but the Euro is weaker, the smart money from Europe is putting their investments overseas into the US dollar.

I commend you on acknowledging your strengths and weaknesses, people who can do that start out ahead, in my opinion.

Review offers with seller(s) and review merits and weaknesses of each component of each offer.119.

The truth is that there are a lot of sick and dangerous predators out there, and predators look for the weak to prey upon.  

What kind of capital reduction can you do up front (down payment), and what do you need from the bank to succeed in this project"The way I answer this question, right here right now is for all of the marbles.If i say, I can't put up a down payment, I look weak.

Most small contractors willing to trade dollars for volume just won't be able to handle a big uptick in quantity of work.HOWEVER... the trouble spot that OP was presenting was that he was having a hard time getting a contractor of adequate size and capability to handle a LOT of work.The trouble here is that a good builder/developer/renovator of 'real' size and capabilities (Office, real management, infrastructure to handle several ground crews, maybe an architect/designer on board full time, someone to handle material logistics, tools, etc.) is going to see the volume-for-lower-cost proposal as being weak... very, very weak.Let me go through the value-add bullet points and tell you why a large, capable firm (not a single dude... a firm) isn't going to care, and will be getting back in their truck as soon as an investor tells them "Give me a good rate and I'll give you 10 hours a second"- The contractor legitimately gets more workIf I am large enough to handle that much work, I have my own means for getting that work that are in place and working for me.

Tools are sub2, lease option, wrap, etc.I have done 100s of them in strong markets and weak markets,  since 1986.

In addition, banks' underwriting have been stringent on investment properties so it's kind of hard to over-leverage.The weak borrowers haven't had a chance to enter or re-enter the market to inflate the assets....yet.

@Meghan McCallum I have been attending two different REIAs but networking has always been a weakness of mine.