So how do I get your secret sauce so I can do all those things you just stated above?

Having boarded up windows is usually a great way to increase your appraisal when trying to refinance incase anyone was trying to figure out the secret sauce.

Everyone would love to find the silver bullet, magic wand, or secret sauce.

there really is no super secret sauce that always works. 

The secret sauce, is that over the years it has allowed me to make connections with folks that have - deep - pockets interested in REI.

Hot sauce with a little salt.

Awesome Sauce @Josh Emory.  

This is more for my record keeping, I guess you can say a form of journaling my growth..So out of the 1st set of direct mail letters (36 targeted properties) I sent out this past friday (6 days ago) I just received my 1st call form a very motivated seller, AWESOME SAUCE!!

You'll want to have just a written policy in place that says that you're following that and you will capitalize any thing over $2,500It used to be $500 which was weak sauce and I had to capitalize junk like smart phones all the time.

. - It would indeed be awesome if you could rationally explain to a bank how the numbers work on a real estate investment, but my guess is that unless you're dealing with a small community bank that doesn't want the property on their books, and would rather sell the property to an investor (and maybe even service the loan for them)...you're not going to have much luck talking reason and sense into a bank.Then again...it never hurts to try and hopefully someone can come along and tell us both who wrong I am and provide that secret sauce recipe.