It now belongs to the bank and you will be dealing with them or their representative/agent.

During the crash, it was so frustrating to watch people let their current home go back to the bank, while they moved all of their cars, boats, motorcycles, and giant TV's to a new cheaper home.

Canadians have a strong bias towards using Realtors and banks and generally don't know about the alternatives, so as a wholesaler there's not only the privacy issues, but a basic trust issue when asking a stranger to sell me their house.So Tiago, you suggest driving for dollars and just straight up knocking on those doors?

Chase bank recently requested I add this into the listing agreement (LA) I have with the seller:  "SELLER MAY CANCEL THIS AGREEMENT PRIOR TO THE ENDING DATE OF THE LISTING PERIOD WITHOUT ADVANCE NOTICE TO THE BROKER, AND WITHOUT PAYMENT OF A COMMISSION OR ANY OTHER CONSIDERATION IF THE PROPERTY IS CONVEYED TO THE MORTGAGE INSURER OR THE MORTGAGE HOLDER.

As I understand it banks tend to look for 6 months of seasoning prior to refinancing.

From what I've read, banks want to see at least one year of steady rent payments.  

Do I just walk into my local bank and ask them what i'd qualify for as an unsecured line of credit?

in this scenario, the prior owner or bank would have risk of loss, and (assuming the bank carried an insurance policy) would be entitled to the insurance proceeds? 

But I know that the banks don't like me buying another primary residence and buying "down in square footage" Do you have any strategies on how I can go around this obstacle and still be able to buy the duplex, 3-plex or 4-plex with a FHA loan and live in one of the units?

I want to get several quotes from banks/lending institutions, but she wants to interview no less than 15 banks and 5 credit unions and go back and forth with each one and pit them against each other in a "rate/closing cost war" to get the absolute best price.