I tend to disagree with most said here.Rental insurance has one of lowest claims payout ratios in the industry.

For us it gave us some piece of mind as this was an old farm property .I would disagree about the explosion.

I disagree.

I disagree...a couple points to note:- With HUD bidding, the buyer's agent decides how much commission s/he wants to get.

Mike, you can use any property as a comp so long as you make the proper adjustments to the valuation based on the differences.I would disagree with this blanket statement.

Although some will, I don't disagree with you doing some of the work yourself.

Not that it is a really poor post, or that I disagree entirely, but there are flaws, especially where a few things are stated as if they are fact, while just opinions.Using seller financing in any form is generally accomplished on a short term basis, but can be accomplished for more than 5 and 10 years, having done so hundreds of times.A word of caution too, that omitting your obligations on a FNMA 1003 (loan application) would make it a fraudulent loan application.

I completely disagree with all the advice about just making things look good.

But that is just my opinion some may disagree.

It depends on how you view it.I agree with J Scott and I am sure others will disagree with me and him as well.I also believe these costs wouldn't be an issue if the are accounted for before the purchase.In other words run the worst case scenario and if that doesn't happen then you are better off than you thought.It also depends on the potential "book of business" you will be getting from the relationship.If this is a big seller who has a large portfolio of properties selling in the millions of dollars than that is different from an investor selling an occasional 50,000 flip.If I am a broker/agent playing in that range I need to make every little cent and as a broker/agent someone cutting me on every deal will be a turn off to do future business with them.I just think you will burn more bridges than you build.For everyone's information the REO companies are some of the nastiest unethical companies out there and treat brokers/agents like slaves.Everything from a 2% co-op to paying off the net to belonging to 10 organizations charging hundreds of dollars each a year to paying for computer platforms,etc.I could go on forever but many seasoned REO brokers have left that side of the business.For the investor the investment makes sense based on the return but not for the broker/agent.