IMHO this is a very, very bad practice.

Now, the owner may have gotten a Realtor that has no interest in his client, they may only be interested in getting a deal and a check, but I'd say most Realtors have a higher level of professionalism, business ethic and a feeling of obligation to their client.My thought on a door knocker with my client would be one of at least distrust, that either two issues that exist, one, the knocker has no clue of the process and accepted practice or two, they were hoping to get a deal circumventing me.

You would be surprised how many people will accept a prevailing attitude or practice to be the law or "the way it works."

How else did they get to know your business practices? 

One last piece of advice is to practice, practice, practice and when you think you got it down, practice again!  

I'm a rather tenacious and hard-working individual that just wants to apply myself to his business.Ultimately, I just want to be inundated in the culture and have a good base of APPLIED knowledge (which cannot necessarily be gained from reading all these books) before I put my money where my mouth is.Thank you for your time!

I would consider them practice more than anything else but now I think we are ready to tackle this thing and create a portfolio.Our plan is to flip at least two properties before purchasing one or two multifamily units in the local market.

@Dylan McLauchlanDylan,Keep in mind that in some areas renting by the room can be considered a discriminatory housing practice because it could potentially prevent families (i.e. parents with kids) from renting.

I am doing preliminary research on a commercial land that I would like to make it into a small mall or a cultural center.

I'm a practicing attorney in Northern Virginia with an interest in real estate.