You may lose some of the deal, but hopefully you won't lose your shirt.

During the bust, I got busy with a 100% DIY remodel of my current house to make it more attractive to the next buyer (or appraiser) and, thru my effort, managed to at least not *lose* any value when things tanked.

As far as knowing what you want and verbalizing it, from my experience the investors who don't have a solid plan for a house going in are the ones who lose time and money.

I think you've just got to make a gut call and be comfortable with the prospect of losing with either option - either because you went all in, sent it to their only findable addresses and risked pissing somebody off, or because you chose to avoid that possibility and missed an opportunity.

I have to say all the hassle was worth it because i didn't lose money on the first deal!

An LLC may offer additional liability protection, but it's easy to lose the protection if you're not careful with your business.  

In my 'investment' situation (and perhaps short sighted newbie view) I equate the experts' approach to getting loans to invest in the stock market and therefore I cant imagine why I would want to have mortgage payment on my investment.

It sounds like you are acquiring a bunch of properties right now and if that's the case there's no point as you're not paying your agent anyways and aren't losing out on any money.

Must be devastating to lose all the savings from many years of hard work.

I wound up losing it all!