In any state where I've bought and sold property, this meant the deed needed a wet signature, witnessed by at least a notary.

This is a great post and something I meant to do a while ago, you beat me to it.

If instead you meant you did want the property even with these problems but just wanted to try and nickel and dime the seller on an already good deal then you know better for next time. 

You can have a realtor involved in seller financing, but it usually does not work out because they don't understand, which is what you may have meant in terms of a realtor knowing how it works.If you paid off your first house, what is your savings?

Mark, can you expand on what you meant by "....they swing against you if you decide to exit the investment". 

Such condos are meant to be second residences, not rentals.

Real estate was scary at the time, the news were bad, prices were dropping and nobody knew if that would ever get better.I had a well paying corporate job at the time (which also meant international travel 2 weeks every m month), so I did not have much time and it also it took me a year to find the confidence and the money for another one.

@Joe HomsEveryone wants to sell the hype as next big thing - but for lead gen it meant to see some track record with it

I said I don't see at what point in the timeline you Break-even and actually start making money, He asked what I meant, he said I get a tenant in the second month in my analysis, that's when I start to cash flow. 

Needless to say, my heart was broken, it still is, we just found each other, we got along so well, we were bonding, but it wasn’t meant to be.