Cons: bedroom is very small (will fit a queen bed, but not a king), no dishwasher or laundry.I never had trouble renting it (it really was a cute place) but putting the negatives in the ad helped cut down on useless showings.

Seems hard to believe they would not have gotten cut off a long time ago if they were not paying a bill for a year.I have not had this issue here but I just had a similar situation with a large unpaid electric bill in another state.  

You need to meet folks there and get to know them.I'm not sure I'm buying the valuation you are suggesting, if homes sell for 10K even with repairs I doubt they would hit 100K, not without 80 or 85K in materials and labor.Some vets are on drugs, not all, I wouldn't even go there, it's not the general assumption.Sorry to hear of your MIL, but I wouldn't bring that up either, others may perceive you as being disparate and to negotiate a deal you can never appear to be disparate.Find a partner, most likely someone who is in the area working on a house today could be one to cut a deal with.Get an option on another property, you don't have funds to be messing with auctions.You could go to the auction too, just to meet other investors who buy, you offer the construction side on terms rather than hourly or contract for the job.

But we have strict guidelines and time tables for the buyer to make decisions.. and we do not allow them on the Job site but once every 2 weeks at a prescribed time and we make them have their Realtor present. this cuts down on visits as the Realtor does not want to stand around why the client walks through the house...

The most it could be is 2.15% so if you multiply that by whatever your loan amount was that would be the max you could get back in rebate.From what I'm gathering your broker told you to ask the escrow officer why the rebate was cut. 

Maybe you could wholesale and work with the buyer to flip for a cut after the sale.

I'm aware while being an RE agent everyone gets a cut of what I do in my investment business so I'm reaching out for a little advice from someone who has been in my situation.  

I pocket 7.5%  Pesky Private Money Lenders cutting into my spread!

A short cut sometimes is knowing the appraisers in the Assessor's Office as they usually have working papers with cross references of information, but here such working papers aren't really public records, but folks might help you.After knowing the system in an area courthouse you can often call for info.

As to a point system I'm guessing it's some method to avoid understanding RE and markets, another short cut that any monkey can follow to make you wealthy so that books can be sold.