LeJonR I do not know exactly how to answer your question except to say that I like to deal with people that I know - so maybe take some time to develop rapport rather than diving into the 20 questions.We live in a dangerous world - how fast do I want to tell an unknown person how much money I have, if I need a loan, etc?

I've been researching REI for over 2 years now and I'm ready to dive in.

The second came from 1 of by bird dogs..he was complaining that he had a deeply discounted short sale approved..10% of FMV and 4% of value of the note..but there were personal judgements that were deeper than the leins and they wouldn't release..I asked for the bank contact..talked him into selling me the note instead of waiting on the short sale...I was fully prepared to foreclose..but in my pre-marketing for the property I got an offer for the note for 5x what I paid for it..still 50% of what I could have sold the property for..but I decided to take the bird in the hand...hope this helps.

As you get deeper into landlording no doubt you'll run into section 8 at some point.

I'm somewhat addicted to diving since getting into it last year and spend almost as much time in the water as out!

After digging deeper the realtor found that the owners were still paying the second mortgage (an automated payment).

The bank or investor who owns the property wants the report to meet certain guidelines or controls such as comps within a 1/2 mile radius.In many cases though there might not be recent sales that close unless it is an urban market but many of these bpo's are in suburban to rural markets.So what usually happens is you go back and forth with QC who is an hourly paid employee for the mill and after putting in a ton of remarks it gets passed.From there the BPO mill puts everything in a nice little package and send of to their customer.I will try to make the rest of this post short but can take this much deeper in detail if anyone has interest.Usually from the time of ordering the BPO it will take a few weeks to get back to the bank.Banks use BPO mills because they do not have the time to locate agents all over the country.Instead they pay a certain amount per order to the mills and the mills pay a reduced fee to the brokers/agent completing them.There are hundreds of mills out there to work for as a broker/agent and you are an Independant Contractor cutting checks every 2 weeks to a month.With BPO's you will here these investor guru's touting these strategies that they will work and the BPO can come back in plus or minus ten percent which on a 400k property could be 440k or 360k which could be an 80k swing in value when the bank makes a decision.The reason you hear off and on information is because of the following.When the market was hot 5 to 6 years ago banks and mills had to beg brokers/agents to do bpo's.Most brokers and agents were doing many sales and didn't have time for them. sales and comps were easy to find.I could do a 24 hr exterior rush on a new subdivision home sale and get paid 130 to 150 bucks.

Then you can jump on more specific forums (Landlording, Wholesaling, Rehabbing, etc) and dig in deeper.

Welcome to the premier Real Estate site around Richard .... dive right in!

Hi, I do not disagree with Don, that is good advice and all true, but just to drill a little deeper, you don't need to have an earnesat money deposit, but what you will need is an Option Fee or consideration to enter into the Option Agreement.