The first and most common is to take the contract and double close with transactional funding. the second is take a buy contract and record it, then you can close once and get paid to release your contract this requires a competant RE lawyer and a bank that will allow you to assign or release (depending on your state laws)lastly, you can contract with a buyer to act as a consultant and get paid to find him property but that takes a relationship with a specific buyer. 

He is also interested in real estate investing and knows most of the local big players.

Very surprised at the great content and players in this thread.  

You're competing with other similar units in your area.  

They were brought to us through our network of developers and lenders.It sounds like you already know what you are looking for so I wont talk about that here, but I did want to say something about finding deals. 4 years ago we had brokers throwing deals after us as there were very few buyers out there, but as you know times have changed, and now you are competing to get the brokers/sellers attention alongside a gazillion other buyers.If there is one thing that I know makes all the difference with getting deals it is to show that you are a serious buyer, and that you can close, fast and with no re-trading.

This is why you are being advised to seek a competent tax professional right now.  

I mean I get it for SFH as investors are competing with retail buyers, and I get it for lower price investment deals let's say under $500K  where there may be a lot of inexperienced investors buying up properties but presumably the people picking up multimillion dollar properties are sophisticated investors.

Well my old house didn't sell.. still hasn't sold and i'm now competing with new development in the gated community my old house is in. 

How do you compete with me?

I thought I would contribute here and post my results so we have it as a record.Last month I sent out 750 small color postcards from yellowletters.com and received 5 responses, of the responses, 2 were folks that wanted to be removed from the list, 1 was a real estate agent that was calling as many investors as she could so they could compete for a house she was going to list, 1 was from someone who was unrealistic and 1 was from a good prospect.