Best practice is this: Do your initial walk through with the seller, get them to sign the contract and find your buyer.

As has been pointed out, you don't have to do the inspection, however I would suggest you do (as long as it is practical to make the visit).  

Joe Investor likes to make it a practice to submit a claim for every single little damage that occurs to his property.  

I am semi-retired from my small law practice, and most of what's left is within an easy drive of this house which is close to highways in all directions.  

Practically less than LA rent on a 2 bedroom! 

Look at what your end goals are, the time period you can lock up your money, and the amount of risk you can tolerate.Diversify and practice DCA (dollar cost averaging) whenever possible.JPG

It's not practical for me to set up any kind of seller financing because of the ARM.

The great thing about the internet is your ability to generate leads for practically free.

My name is Louis Bergman and I'm based in the Sunshine State.Feel free to check my profile for more details.Together with my son and his wife we run Hawthorn Enterprises LLC, which does Commercial Money Brokerage with as specialty Multifamily Projects.For practical purposes we do not deal with individuals, as we prefer to work with non-recourse Loan programs.We also buy for our own portfolio, or partner up with other Investors/Developers who want us to commit our financial expertise to their projects for a longer term.We originally started out as "ugly house investors", and fairly soon evolved into the much more rewarding Multifamily playing field.I'm very impressed with the positive way in which biggerpockets has developed itself, and it will be a pleasure to contribute to the membership whenever I can.Thank you for having this great Forum, and I look forward to being an active member.

Anything that does not sell you can throw away.The above were the actual rules in one location.You also can take a practical view of how much will someone want to file a claim against you.