If winter isn't a good time in your area to be selling/renovating houses, then I would imagine contractors are pretty slow and desperate for work.

Remember as an investor it is not the VOLUME and size of the deals you put together because many can be crap it is the QUALITY of the deals you do.I would rather spend a few months doing an awesome acquisition than buying up marginal to okay deals left and right.I have seen this happen on flips and long term holds.In both cases the investor did real well on one property and then started getting carried away.Pretty soon a couple of marginal deals starting to tank their long term portfolio into a neutral or negative position.Even on flips they made good on a few and then the next few went real bad and they were almost at square one again.You have to treat this business like a pawn shop.You will come across many sellers but few will accept your price and terms.So you have to keep going or come back to the seller until they get desperate enough to meet your terms.A classic tactic with a seller is when they will not accept your price and terms.Then a few months pass and they come back to you.Then if you have a couple deals on your plate you come from a position of power.You let them know you are involved with other projects now and to take this property on now you couldn't pay what you offered before and can now only do XX.There will always be another quality deal to be had but millions of marginal to okay deals to get stuck in for years and paralyze the growth and success of your real estate investment portfolio.

It sounds like we are desperate to me.If any of your clients need a place to park the remaining fund Darryl remember the finder's agreement ;-)

I know seller is desperate and there is only one lender, so most likely it can sell for asking price, which is 50-60K below comps.Can I contact the bank directly to present my offer?

Even if they give you half that money you're getting 1.5% of the purchase price.Sellers who are selling with a rent-to-own situation are either investors who know what they're doing or desperate sellers who are willing to jump through a few hoops to get rid of their property.

Unfortunately, there are no shortage of scammers who use the ploy of stating they can lend on high LTV deals to suck in desperate borrowers.

People in bad situations are going to be turned off, people in desperate situations are going to go all in and lose.

I'm trying hard NOT to get desperate, but needing steady income...

Traditional wisdom is that people looking this time of year figure sellers are desperate, but then again the inventory is extremely low and you aren't desperate.

And, they don't sound desperate enough to sell it subject too.