He illustrates the power of this technique by explaining the thought process from the seller's mind shifting from "yes" or "no" on 1 offer to "which of these 2 offers is the best?"

I would ask for a detailed    review of fees and an illustration that projects what your investment may look like when the fund refinances or sells.    

If the deal is really that overpriced, you need to illustrate that even in best case scenario (pro forma) conventional financing limits this acquisition to these variables.

To that end, if you haven't already put together a packet that illustrates how successful your 5-property portfolio is, I would definitely do that.

Frankly speaking we just don't have the population dynamics or the geographic constraints that it would take to produce a true PoP investment strategy like you can find in Tier 1 metros or quickly growing 2nd and 3rd tier metros with geographic barriers.To illustrate this, I would recommend driving down each street between NW 10th and NW30th, from May to Classen and back. 

David Goggins mentioned a concept that illustrates this...

Here's a good graphic that illustrates this:For instance, now that your debt to income ratio prevents you from getting a mortgage, this is an opportunity to learn CREATIVE FINANCING.

The rhetorical question is hyperbole, but it illustrates the point.Look to hours spent running and operating the real property trade or business.Something like continuing education hours required by real estate agents to maintain their license with the state would count.Hours spent by investors reading books, online articles, blog posts, not so much...

A triplex next to one of my triplex rentals illustrates the difference.

It's work and takes efforts and I use multiple approaches to locate good,properties.I would like to help you by reframing your guidance "I want a deal not retail" from an agent's perspective and then from an investor's perspective.Many agents are investors themselves.Not sure of the price point in your market but by way of illustration.....Let's assume by "deal", you mean something like 10% below market.Say an agent finds a "deal" as defined as above.....let's say it's a house priced at $90,000 that's worth a $100,000.The agent could sell it to you and make 3% of $90,000 or $2,700 in commission.Or agent could buy house for their own account and have $10,000 instant equity.If you were the agent, what would you do?