A good buyer's agent can keep this from happening...Also, you always have final say over any decisions, so if you disagree with something your agent tells you, you just ignore it.

As such, many investors are experiencing fierce competition and very tight spreads, so I would have to disagree with the statement that the good deals these days are being found there (of course that is not to say that no deals are available, just to say they are few and far between).95%+ of my deals come from the relationships I have built with REO brokers, asset managers, and other contacts.

I disagree about single-families not cash-flowing or using cap rates.

Some may disagree with that...

Based on that, I disagree with your premise that appraised values are more "stale" than buyer's perceived values.

I'd love to hear from all of you and whether or not you agree or disagree and why.

I disagree with your agreement with Steve Babiak for the reason I stated in my post.

I disagree with Ebere.

I could be completely wrong and there may be others that disagree but start small, understand the business (its not all glamarous), build your model, then start to grow.

If the guy can't effectively communicate, understand your expectation (so he can quote accordingly), tell you when things go wrong (instead of covering it up), tell you when a substitution has been made (so you can agree or disagree instead of showing you he changed a type L copper into a type M copper AT THE END) etc...and finally if they are late to estimate the job, there is NO WAY they will be on time when they come to actually DO the job.