I think the start of 2019 will give us an idea of where the buyers minds are at, but also I think we may see a stabilization of pricing vs a ongoing bidding of some unrealstic prices. 

They just arrived last week and I plan on going through the both of them this weekend.

I like your idea of paying the fee to the agent yourself for ongoing goodwill and the convenience factor. 

For reference i was looking at 2br/1ba 1000sq/ft condo/apartments. to respond to your questions here are some things i have thought of: - The HOA should be considered your mortgage. you have a mortgage due every month and you have a HOA due every month they are the same. when i ran my numbers i just lumped them together because you cant skip either of them on a monthly. just my POV. 

Yes, I ran this one as cash.

@Mark Sewell  I actually plan on going to a quest meeting next Tuesday.

@Stanley Bronstein Yep, I ran into that HOA restriction already with some condos in Glendale; on the house the listing agent says he'll double check for me. 

@Kevin Brenner this is an ongoing issue in areas where there are older buildings.

@Martin Saenz   I think though you have to break note investing into categories.. not all note investing is the same.you have NPN investing that is wildly different than new orgination note investing.. or investing in a note fundOr like in my Day when I ran my HML company in Oakland doing new origination for builders and fix and flippers.I had 250 clients 50 million under management.. and while we had an occasional bummer  95% of them worked out.those notes for those investor returned 10 to 12% pretty routinely and many times 15%  Late 80s HM rates.and our investor were totally passive.. they entrusted us the broker to do the underwriting etc..so then you get this cool new shinny object called crowdfunding.. and the debt deals they do IE new origination are all note deals.. with varying degree of success.. but totally passive to the investor. 

We have reduced that number, but it continues to be an ongoing challenge.