Rental prices especially from large apartments or rental companies tend not to be very negotiable so prices for rentals that are available are a pretty good guide.

My thought is to buy the house for $40k or so, partner with the seller (he drew up a very detailed scope of work that totals about $50k in repairs but I feel there is still room for negotiation in his number).

In the negotiations (civilly, if ever there was a misnomer...) the buyer's attorney says, "We won't persue criminal charges against you, Mr. seller/lender if you drop the foreclosure against my client and give him the house free and clear."

Went through negotiations came to an agreement on 381K.

Awesome.The problem with property taxes is it's difficult to negotiate them down with the city.

To make it easy for everyone, we have one set of rates and terms and these apply anywhere in the L.A. area.I know others who want to negotiate different rates for each location and borrower.

You can go a short sale route, might negotiate a lower payoof or purchase the note (covered here on BP) and then have the owner give you the property, maybe with a little cash to them to boot, or wait for the foreclosure.One caution, you can approach someone who is late on payments, but once notice of foreclsoure is sent to the borrower new rules apply.

You market to 2000 people > you get X calls > you get X leads > you negotiate X deals > you close X deals with X getting smaller as you move along.

:) Your thoughts are good Bill, though, I was definitely thinking of the scenario of having met with the owner, and at some point in the discussion/negotiation, moving to do some inspecting of the house to see what I'm getting.

In fact my offer had a 72 hour acceptance deadline which is now long gone.I am guessing this means the bank is in negotiation with one of the buyers and are putting everyone else in a hold position?