We are local to the area of our investment properties which gives us a distinct advantage in knowing the market and being able to locate profitable investment properties.Our weakness is our lack of relationships with industry professionals, thus making initial deals more challenging.

The market is so inflated right now, many properties have weak numbers for long term rental and great numbers for short term rental. 

While out looking at a property once, the RE agent told me that the property was not eligible because of weak financials.

If you have 300k for commercial most properties even using debt at 1 million are worthless in that range and in weak areas.

Landlords that choose not to take a hard line regarding non payment ultimately will regret their weakness.

On weak deals like this, it will often cause the taxable income to go negative.

pid=20601103&sid=a9FRZ6ipJB8Y Commercial Mortgage Defaults Have Another Year Before Bottoming Out, Report Says http://www.observer.com/2009/real-estate/commercial-mortgage-defaults-have-another-year-bottoming-out-report-says FDIC chief sees commercial mortgage threat http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2009/08/31/daily42.html Commercial Mortgage Defaults to Continue to Rise Sep 9, 2009 11:23 AM http://retailtrafficmag.com/charts/0909-commercial-mortgage-defaults-rise Banks' Commercial Mortgage Denial Worries Fed http://www.dsnews.com/articles/banks-commercial-mortgage-denial-worries-fed-2009-10-09 The Federal Reserve Board Reports on commercial real estate markets indicated that demand for space remained weak and that construction continued to decline in all Districts.

I have had asset managers tell me that many view the first offer from the investor to not be their last offer.So unless it is close to list price and terms are great to the bank the asset manager tells me they always counter to see how much higher the investor will go.Sometimes the timing isn't right for a property yet and you wait.I am looking at a 32 unit apartment complex right now.The seller came to me with X after I came back to him with Y.Either he will keep it,meet my terms,come back to me again with something that I will consider accepting,or someone else will offer him something closer to what he will accept and I will move on.So I am waiting for that small window of weakness to capitalize for my price and terms.I have had some owners tell me a few months ago I would have considered selling for that but now I have some rents in and I am doing okay for now.So then I wait for the next timing again when they are desperate.Even with banks as a seller it's still about timing.

If you assume the market is weakly efficient, then theoretically it should be impossible to "find money" given publicly available data.

During high demand times appraisal prices typically go up, and during weak demand prices may soften.I would also suggest that you be prepared that the appraisal will likely come in at a price that is more conservative than what you think it should be.