@Tony Thomas  Points, discount or buy down are all the same thing, and that thing is simply pre-paid interest.

This makes targeting distressed sellers, such as those in pre-foreclosure, or those with ballooning debt that was taken out in 2020-2021 when the interest rate was 7.37x lower (8/09/2020 the 10-year treasury was .56%, 1/15/2024 the 10-year treasury is 4.69%) making it very difficult for those that underwrote the property in 2020 to have predicted refinancing at these rates and likely a sale is their only option.

I have my own hypothesis, but would love to know real data points, what don't you like as an investor about Zillows user experience and or interface?

Since you haven't started the project yet, use this time to network with lenders to see who offers the best terms....seasoning, rate, leverage and pre-payment penalty terms. 

Absentee owners, pre-foreclosures, and tired landlords. 

We stay in contact with this agent and I guess she made a couple of verbal offers for us after the agreement had expired. 

They often offer updated owner records, pre-foreclosure data, and more targeted lists for specific markets.

You can pre-screen them for free, then run the credit/criminal background only for those that pass your initial review so you're not wasting time.

You've signed up for one PIA if the owner is still in the house.One way to tippie toe into this is to hook up with short sale agents and start working with them offering to door knock the NOD folks. 

I've got about 7k in an emergency savings account.I am in the process of getting several mortgage pre-approvals to compare fees and get an idea of how much home I can realistically afford.I have yet to find a buyer's agent/investor to help me identify potential homes but will start on that shortly.Ideally, I would like to buy a single family home.