Trying to tie up the property only to negotiate on it may be only time wasted. 

Want the wrong tenants, well, that's easy.Knowing where they move to if they skip the rent - waste of time and will simply wind you up.

For the 90% of employees who investing all their retirement in unsecured assets on Wall Street, just because everybody else is doing it, their perception is that it must be low risk.   

I don't want to waste time searching for someone once the home is under contract.

Or the parameters some of these lenders want is just totally off the wall.

You want to waste $200 and three days, get some fliers printed up for cheap and walk the neighborhoods you are interested in and try to pick up some deals.I can't stand these people. 

This way you can refund their fee having not already wasted it on a background check you did not even need.

And renovation of kitchen that comes complete with cowboy wall paper covered cabinets.    

Then we get into it; and realized we hated swinging hammers, and knocking down walls, or we hated dealing with the 3 T's (tenants, toilets, and taxes), or whatever...Remember:(1) There is no need to "buy yourself another job".

I'm a little unsure about how this system works, and of course, being cheap/frugal/ whatever, I hate to waste money.