This is how it worked: the "land agent" had a buddy on the scene who set up a big bladder full of water a bit further up the mountain, ran a hose through the brush down the mountain, and buried the last fifteen feet.

He's telling you to wait a week because you're going to go look at cars in person, or put your contact info on some website, to "think about it" a week earlier than whatever he tells you (this is 100% true, and as a lender I will not believe you if you tell me otherwise... sorry :P ), and the second you walk onto that car lot a bunch of car salesmen are going to descend upon you, deploying various lines of BS as a pretext to run your credit ("it's a soft pull" or "we just need your SSN to verify you aren't a terrorist, we aren't going to run your credit") and close you on a car that very day, and there is greater than a 0% chance you will believe what they tell you and screw everything up.The rule is that whatever you tell homebuyers not to do, some non-trivial percentage of them are going to push it one notch farther than you tell them.

If you're too soft to deal with tenants, or unskilled at marketing your property, then it doesn't matter if you live next door to the property - you should probably put it under PM.

Definitely a balance between the economics and soft skills.

by not being stern and acting by the letter of the law, tenants will see you soft and further *attempt* to take advantage of you.Don't let them do that. once you put your foot down, they know they can't stretch things, and have to let "other" payments slide, but not the rent.Counter to intuition, this won't make them leave, it will make them respect you for enforcing the terms of the contract.FYI for those offended: I'm a hobby landlord turning pro. :) 

If the market is soft then you are in a hole so timing is everything.

If you know your credit score you quote it to the potential lenders and they can provide conditional quotes and/or do a soft inquiry. 

Cheap market, but the fees/additional soft expenses drive me crazy, and you always see them at the VERY END!

Concentrated bleach, a garden hose, and a scrub brush made quick work of the mold on the concrete.

There is also the soft heart aspect of this for me, where the buyer is a single mother with two children and this will be her first house.