It weeds out the weak applicants and helps us identify the strongest.  

If the best argument a person can put forward for the strength of a market is to only brag it's cheapest, well that tells me a whole lot more about how weak the market is than anything else. 

The problem is of course that most agents are weak, hopefully the broker is not. 

They don't have to be "part of the deal" beyond lendersUse HML for part of the second (it'll be 12%+ points due to a weak second positionHave seller raise price buy $300k if the appraisal will support, and refund that as a credit at close.

They're essentially unheard of in Europe, where there is no equivalent of Fannie & Freddie.May well be more variation in rates between good and weak borrowers.

chronically late paying the rent? 

I am excellent at analysis (I'm a numbers person at my day job), but very weak in knowledge on rehab.

I realized I could be missing out on a lot of money by not taking advantage of my tax deferred accounts.My current thinking is to max out my 401k for two years and then turn the 401k into a self directed IRA and use it for a down payment.As you can probably tell I am weak on this issue. 

Don't think of your strengths as weakness.

I think that is one of my biggest weaknesses; being too generous even with my employees (when I had them) It wasn't all just business.