@Randy Philpot Not to pile on, but this strikes a nerve with me.

You'll also be more savvy and know what kind of hassles certain situations are to deal with and reconsider what your time is worth to take those problems on.My point is to pat yourself in the back for what you've done right and encourage you to re-examine those actions that you would take and resources that you might employ sooner or differently. 

Once you have a commitment, you may have to pay for an appraisal if that company uses appraisals, or you may have to pay direct to the attorney or title company for the title examination, but no fee should be paid to the lender upfront.And the reasons for using hard money instead of conventional are many, but are specific to the deal:Not enough time to close conventionalLoan too small for conventional (your deal is too small for conventional)Property condition won't qualify for conventionalEtc, etcIf you can get conventional, don't use hard money, unless you are so red-tape averse that it's worth it to you to not deal with banks.

Now the bank may have marked the asset to a certain market price and that troubled asset report has been reviewed by FDIC examiners, but that does not give the FDIC any power to direct.

But any title examine worth his salt will see through that and again request the trust agreement when the deed is reviewed and may go further to request beneficiaries (not that they have the right/power to do so..but if you don't produce- they won't insure.. ) I'm still hoping someone will jump in here and direct me to an Oregon title company that will insure sales of property conveyed from trustee to a 3rd party arm's length buyer.

This is a great place to calm your nerves.

(And please excuse the novel below ;))I'm going to take my CA Salesperson exam in a few weeks and my partner of 6 yrs (romantic, not investment!)

I passed my last exam in May, and purchased my first property in July. 

Yes I have a friend do the showing, but vet the tenant to my criteria:forget fico scoresforget bankruptcies(the above just tell you life gets messy)closely examine the 30, 60, 90 latesand look for collections for trivial bills, eg cell phone and utility servicesIf you're really remote from the property, your friend can can act as "YOUR AGENT" and perform the signing.

I was very prepared for the exam and finished the state exam in about 22 minutes.