This takes a little time but most people skip right over this step trying to monetize their offering before their ready...

After I've acquired that list, I will use a 3rd party Skip tracer to get 2-3 phone numbers per seller.

Sometimes they need $5000 or $10,000 to buy a teenager a car or put on the roof, etc.I tell them that will be X number of payments skipped.

Skip the wholesaling.

If you can't do this, you may want to skip the meeting.If you and the tenant can not find a mutually beneficial arrangement, you should ride it out.  

I kept sending people to talk to the borrower (Calvin 'Skip' Lucas - no sense keeping his ID secret anymore as others should know to stay far away from him) and he gave every excuse in the book why he wouldn't use them.

And pine needles get through anything;The roots infiltrate sewer lines or septic field lines;Branches fall and do damage to fences, wires, houses;Trees too close to the house give access to roofs and attics to pests and burglars;Trimming and cutting them down later is crazy expensive (figure on at/close to a grand per large tree if they have to come down);Renters suck at cutting the grass around them, either scarring them up with a weedeater or leaving the grass 10 feet high;Renters suck at cleaning up the branches and bringing them to the curb for pickup;Renters suck at cleaning up the leaves in the fall, which then smothers and kills the lawn;Any structure anywhere near the tree will have sap on it and later mildew from the sap and need frequent cleaning;Trees are a huge contributor to pollen which can aggravate people's allergies.So there's my 10 reasons to skip the tree.

Don't let them skip a month or two.

I would have started earlier and skipped messing around with the smaller stuff.

But most metal roofing is installed on spaced lathe or skip sheathing.