I'd hand this off to my SS broker and forget about the deal.

Hey Greg,I originally started out in residential as a real estate broker.I looked at residential for investment but never pulled the trigger for various reasons.I felt back then the market couldn't keep going up and I was right.I know many sellers now that are STUCK and wish they could buy but they can't because they bought at the height of the market.I only do commercial now.From an earnings standpoint as a broker it doesn't make sense for me to put in 40 offers for an investor on a small house to maybe make 700 to 1,000 bucks on the deal when it finally happens.If I can put the same time and effort into commercial and make 10 to 100 times that much on 1 deal then why work more for less??

I've also been researching transactional funding, Hard Money lending but am worried about usury laws, compliance with state/federal regulations, dealing with brokers, title companies, attorneys, CPA's and the due diligence on the property to fund.

I'm wondering if many multi family properties exchange between principals just through commercial broker networks?

Unless a close friend is yout agent you have an extremely rough time getting them to understand wholesaling, the only time I every flipped working with a realtor I was forced to do a simultaneous closing because her broker wanted nothing to do with investors.

I use Sentry West as my insurance broker.

It won't matter if you go FSBO later if you are just chasing the market down.If the market is going down fast or many properties are fixing to flood the market you need to know that.Has your listing broker looked at properties that are fixing to become REO or in trouble close by?

If you have completed any amount of short sales you do upfront work first to not waste time.Never take what a seller says at face value.They will tell you anything to try and get help to solve a problem but the issue is they don't know they are hurting instead of helping.The problem with sellers is at first they are motivated to do a short sale.Then as time goes on and credit is ruined and they have moved out they become emotionally detached from the property.The buyer have unrealistic time lines to close for a short sale.You need to know if your market is declining,flat,or appreciating every month.If it's appreciating or flat the benefit is to the buyer.If it is declining the benefit is to the bank because by the time it close it might have lost 5 to 10 percent of value from the contract price.Your bank actually moved pretty quick with the short sale compared to some others.A buyer and a seller need to understand it could take 3 to 6 months or longer to do a short sale.A friend of mine that is another broker in Florida has completed over 800 short sales.He is a master at them.I did residential for a few years but then moved to commercial so I haven't kept up with all the regulatory junk on the residential side.He does all residential and does not take the short sale unless the seller agrees to certain conditions from the beginning.

I had the exact same experience with a person who claimed to be a note buyer (end buyer-not a broker) that I met on BP.

Have you tried co-operating with brokers in the area and paying them half a months rent to find a tenant?