A simple Google search will provide proof that none of the tenant screening services have gone out of business, so clearly landlords can and still use those services, which includes obtaining credit reports (3rd party) to influence their rental decisions.

So just to be clear...I'm pretty much at the mercy of the seller at this point, and the only way to really get the bank to have any influence would be if/when it ultimately went to foreclosure?

They may be able to influence the fiduciary to sell to you or upon certain terms.

That said in underwriting the score does have an influence but as much as the common public tends to think.

It’s an 80-year old couple if that influences anyone’s answer... thanks for any help in the matter.

We need volume under 350k and it is physically impossible for a builder to do.A lot of factors influence the market, like you have pointed out @William Allen - interest rates, goverment policy, money supply, stimulus, forbearance etc - but in the end it comes down to supply and demand.

Moving on...unfortunately political influence plays a HUGE part in Real Estate and that includes ownership and investing.

There can be exceptions... like if you had inside knowledge that the value of the property might be influenced in the near future... like if Wal Mart  or Disney was buying the property next door, etc.  

They got on TikTok and found influencers from the area and highered them to tour the property talk about it, make a couple videos and it sold quickly.

Wholesaling seems to fall in a legal grey area, and with the number of guru-influenced wholesalers out there at the moment who are swindling people and marketing properties in manner which likely violates state laws I wonder if it is only a matter of time before wholesaling comes crashing down in most states.I read in a book titled Secrets of buying and selling real estate -- without using your own money by Robert Shemin that one lesser used method for wholesaling besides double closing or assignment of contract is to secure an irrevocable option to purchase a property.