(At least in Illinois, laws can vary by state)Sounds like they are trying to get you to sign a buyer agreement which is not a very common practice today, some agents still do this but not all. 

W could probably have already refi'd to make our next purchase easier but ...um...some stuff happened to make that less practical for him.

Running it through an online ROI calc, it yields 25.5% per year for 7 years.

While I've never met either in person, they both seem great online.  :-D

Besides being inspiring did you get any practical information out of it.

The big news here is that a class action law suit is going forward against the City of Bedford in the Northern District of Ohio contesting "all homeowners who were forced to endure government searches as a precondition to the sale of their homes are entitled to demand refunds of illegal “Point of Sale” inspection fees".A similar suit has already been adjudicated in the Southern District Courts in favor of prohibiting the practice as a sale requirement.41 communities in Northeast Ohio require some type of POS for title transfer which I'm sure is a source of income the cities don't want to see disappear.

That sounds strange, but you have nothing holding you back from venturing out of your security...because you have lost that security blanket that was your job.I would venture to say, that most of the success stories in history, started out where you are right now...me included.So, with nothing holding you back, and with plenty of time on your hands (time will always be your greatest asset...since you can never get it back), if you want to get into REI, you need to do the following:1 - Learn,2 - Learn some more,3 - Keep learning.Places to learn (before you say "that costs money"), that don't cost any money are:1 - Online education sites that have free articles written by experts in their fields.2 - Free e-books, that you can get online.3 - Joining your local REIC's to both learn and network.4 - ...and never stop learning...even when you become a success at this (and you will)Also, three very critical actions you MUST follow to be a success:1 - Always think possitive.2 - Train yourself to think of future "obstacles" as temporary problems...and you are the problem solver. 

The BP rental property calculator should be helpful in determine the cash return on your investment.If you didn't see this past week's webinar, Brandon walks you through on things to consider as well as how to input numbers into the online calculator on BP.

@Wayne Brooks Is it a standard practice of a title company to perform a search with the city or municipality?

I went to ask questions about zoning on a property ( I didn't even know what I was talking about at that point) and the architect who was on line overheard and offered to help and provided his business card; right after he handed me the card, I watched him go into the office of the zoning officer for a private meeting, which was a good clue.