This thread has been a great reminder for me to ignore those places and continue look for value add opportunities that will fatten the rent roll and keep me from spending my retirement years working as a cashier at Walmart.

I am interested in flips and rentals only because I am not familiar with other strategies at this time,  as I continue to learn and gain confidence in what I am doing other strategies will be considered.

best of luck to you as you continue to explode your business.

However, that doesn't mean that I think it's okay for this bank to continue to cost people undue amounts of due diligence money indefinitely. 

We really want this property, should we pay the expense and continue with the deal?

As a newer investor, you can take the proceeds of your NOI to reinvest, and continue to grow your operations.But.....If this was the only method there would be no successful RE investors in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York; which obviously isn't true.

Continue to educate yourself, stay committed, network2.

I'm used to having home inspector come in before signing contract so that I can continue to negotiate the terms of the contact.

Or should I continue with my plan of just flipping houses?

I continued to look for investors everywhere I went. at street fairs, through my small network of home owners and business people, hosted seminars on finding and doing fix and flips and built up a group of investors who encouraged me to find them development deals.