Meaning they're not counting things like tax preparation, court filings, vacancy, insurance ect., and some of the smaller items they're handling themselves so they're just charging material not time.

If there any programs, or lenders that could invest in me in order to acquire this property?

When I am working on purchasing I probably spend 20 or 30 hours a week sifting thorough the auction properties, driving them, comping them, and then preparing the bids.

Foolishly, I was one of those who spent several hundred dollars in some crazy program so that I can "make $50,000 in 2 days".

So I think the focus should be on solidifying my retirement and real estate portfolio and preparing for the day that my "day job" is no more.The only way that I will pay off my current debt at the cost of postponing investing is that when the pay off for doing so will catapult me into an investment and earnings rate that will far exceed putting the debt aside for now.So my question remains, does forfeiting investment spending today to pay down personal debt help me to achieve my goal slower or faster than keeping the debt and putting all of my current disposable income into investments?

I am a big believer in the fact that there are benefits to many different strategies and if you are able to use multiple strategies to reach your end goals, go for it, just make sure you are educated and prepared to initiate multiple strategies.That is the very short version, but hopefully if helps a little.

I am preparing for the purchase of my first investment property.

Other states may vary.On private sales, we don't use a state standard contract, we use one prepared by our real estate attorney.

What you might be suggesting is hidding it, but then doing that could allow a seller to sell, say for more money, putting the optionee in a position to sue to enforce his option, if he is not prepared to take the option, in the real world, would that be a good move.......probably not, you might kill the sale, but then what?

I'm sure there are programs out there, but I'd just hang around BP and see who is doing a lot of deals.