My question / perspective is that I do agree with you that yes a landlord does have to look for clients like you suggested, however from my experience that is just a piece of the puzzle.

I also just recently paid for the PRO membership here and have started catching up on old webinar episodes.Looking forward to posting more progress as it happens and also to networking with all the helpful  and knowledgable members here on the site.I will be looking to build our team shortly - looking for agent(s), CPA, contractors and all the other integral pieces of the puzzle.

Outside of that I will say Network, Network, Network - that is where you will find all of the necessary pieces to your puzzle now as well as in the future when you are trying to complete a new one!

Looking to connect the dots because I have several cash buyers lined up and *potentially* motivated buyers, so this is the critical piece of the puzzle to determine their levels of motivation and viability of making that cash offer on the property to get things started.I have several exit strategies from assignment, to back-to-back closes, to a cash purchase and flip, so again please feel free to help me zero in on getting in front of these homeowners in the most efficient way(s) possible!

I'm a bit puzzled regarding the math of having a conventional mortgage and being upside down by 10-20k, but she admits to not understanding the process well and might just be a little confused on the terminology.  

First piece of the puzzle for you is getting ahold of some working capital.

The realtor looked puzzled when I was looking to get the property under contract.

Housing, IMHO, is only one small piece of the puzzle here.

What makes a partnership work, is when the puzzles pieces formed by all of the above come together to form the picture that is the partnership.Now, the most important thing, all partnerships are different because all partnerships are based on different properties, in different markets, with different partners, with different desired returns and participation for earning those returns.So, like I said in the beginning, your answer was the statement you made right before you asked the question.

Also, that I already have most of the puzzle pieces needed to be successful in real estate investing.