Makes a big difference.Most contractor "partnerships" I have seen simply involve him floating the cost of the rehab until sale and occasionally hearing about a deal.

(You confirmed something that has been floating in my mind for sometime now.)I often read about all these "creative" options and hustler-approaches to finding a "deal" but often times the things I find are in such poor quality that any sort of rehab (something I too am not eager to do as I have a job) would make it more expensive to buy.I do wonder though, maybe it's just our market, at least in Northern California, comprised of a bunch of angry, anti-government, VC-money-dreaming techies (looks in mirror, haha) so perhaps the midwest reacts better to those letters. 

I was told the owner would not accept an offer less than $200k because we had floated a VERBAL offer first of $165k & that was the response we received back😀.

Banks make money in a number of ways:The fees you mention above.Fees for servicing the loans on an ongoing basis.The "float," i.e. using the money from the time they borrow the money from the government (at next to no interest) until the mortgage closes.The "spread," i.e. the difference between the interest the bank pays to the fed and the interest paid by the homeowner

I drifted towards a town that had three big universities, teaching hospitals and big science.

Then it may be worth the risk of floating the property for awhile. 2) if you absolutely love the home and hope to move back into it someday.

The owner wanted to float it for 6 months because he wanted long term capital gains for the full year. 20k earnest money was punted in September when buyer decided to not close.

They all share a bank that can float any property for over 6 months (This is not an operating account, each property has its own operating account).

There's a lot of money floating around there, pushing prices up and net margins down.

But you probably have enough resources to float you while you really ramp up your real estate business.