I am at the very beginning stage of looking for cash buyers, however, since I am so green at this, I need a little hand holding.

I'm still in the early stages, but I'm trying to get to know people the business, and the lay of the land. 

Learn some nothing down techniques and use themFind sellers and negotiate with them directly (unlisted properties)Ask your agent to send you expired listing dailyMake offers 20% below last listed price on expired listingsMake Trial Offers and  use Second Stage negotiations Flip some properties every month to create cash reserve and cash flow.Always ask for seller financing in your contract offerAsk for Principal Mortgages, delayed settlements and early pay-off discountsTake a portion of your money to advertise for propertiesRun radio ads for real estate wantedUs a skinny contractsHave your agent take out the clause in his contrat "Time is of the Essences"Build in an automatic extension in your contract (have it before you need it)Have fun and build your real estate portfolioCharles

The investor and I used our own furniture to stage the property.

One house that I just received the contract on states that if the deal falls through, the agent gets our deposit (He originally asked us for 10% deposit - which i thought was quite excessive and worked him down to 3%)Is it a must that we have to sign the contract before we get to modify it to our needs?

Luckily, the interior of the house was very clean and needed mostly ‘lipstick’ and some staging.

. $180 to clean just the bathroom and kitchen seems excessive (although that might be an indication of how bad it was and why charging for cleaning was necessary)

I'm still in the research stage.

I've always loved interior design, but as I've pursued different avenues within that field, I realized I'm much more interested in staging.

But I'm still in the early stage of looking into this approach.