Although we may see more inventory hit the market as people can escape "rate lock".I invest in today's market by searching hundreds of properties on the MLS, then going to see the top 10-20, then making an offer on the best at a price where I can cashflow after all expenses and putting 25% down.

Looking forward to your reply, and assisting any way that I can!

I am hopeful I could under bid and get it at a good deal.I would like to put an offer in, but I don't have enough cash to pay the full amount at auction.

There are a bunch of people here that offer their services.I recommend using dropbox to store all the receipts and name the files with the property that it belongs to along with the cost of the expense.

Admittedly I am new to this and I haven't written a creative offer before. 

He says if I pay him full asking, he would provide me with the 20% down payment since we could avoid realtor fees, and make up the rest by paying full asking (he had it appraised), rather than accepting an offer under asking.

I've been in real estate since 2015 and currently offer accounting services to investors.

You are assigned a crack CPA, with an accounting assistant who are overseen by a ProVision principal.  

From my perspective, the new builds are so competitive with both the prices, closing cost assistance and rate buy-downs that they are a clear choice for anyone looking at turnkey options. 

Seller is an idiot for even accepting your offer.