In the future you never offer to pay anything without receipts.

So, they have barely an inkling of how to work with an investor to find "deals".Of course, most of the newbie investors don't know what a "deal" is either, with many of them willing to pay asking, or above asking prices.

He said it’s more of an incentive to get his tenants to pay on time.

In my area, there seems to be a ceiling on what people will pay for rent and if they have enough income to rent a $500,000 home, they will just buy one instead.

When using hard money, your rate is usually higher and you also have to pay some sort of lender fees and points. 

It may sound nice to pay a 6% management fee but the extra fees can add up to be more than the other company that charges 10% with no additional fees.

The tenant pays me $175 on the side so I'm still cash flowing a few hundred overall.

65% of your success is the list, not the letter.I totally disagree with Jonathan about saying you will not lowball.You will, and then you look stupid.Unless you are a realtor and can offer listing solutions, I would say you will NOT pay full retail so you don't get all the calls of worthless leads that want full retail.The only reason to do this is if you are a rookie and want practice talking to people.Easier and cheaper practice is to go to craigslist or facebook marketplace and call landlords that are renting and ask them to buy.Your letter is fine, if you find a motivated seller, they will call.

That doesn't mean there is no value in buying a boot camp.My underlying question is, what's really the value of me paying? 

In the past 2 years, I have used my extra money to pay off student loans by interest rate.