Otherwise, I recommend hoarding cash and wait for the largest financial player to reinstate pre-covid rules and level off the market. 

@Michael Lowe - a lot of good commentary in this thread and something we see all the time with new players in the business. 

In IT, nobody is building datacenters (small players) anymore everything is just about to rollover to infrastructure as a service.

Steve Brown Apartments and Forward Management are two of the largest players and often buy and hold everything from large apartment complexes to single family homes as they strategically buy entire blocks to tear down and develop large complexes.

Go to local REI events and meet the players. 

I agree with your assessment but that doesn't mean qualified investors can't get better rates today due to the involvement of larger players.  

Those are your two big players.

title insurance fee's are normally set by state law.. but escrow fee's can be negotiated just like the big players do.

Al You can't expect a sax player to be trusted with MLS info can you?

Exactly, put yourself between real players, sources and understand the way properties will be hitting the market and those who will want them.Looking forward to your thread, but saying you can increase marketing efforts to compensate for skill sets (?)