Having a clear, concise message about what you're looking to accomplish will help you achieve that goal.

If you take an application fee and you had a prior applicant pending and they qualified,, and they paid the deposit and signed everything,, then if you had a back up application waiting you'd return the funds to the applicant and not run the form.

People keep telling me that around here that is really for "developers" and I guess I don't rate yet (though I'd like to someday :))The problem is the market is so hot up here, it seems like the only way I can find a deal that supports my goals is with fixing up more distressed properties that haven't sold right away, so I'm struggling with the best way to use my available capital.

In a year or less, my goal is to put myself in the best situation to purchase an owner occupied SFR or Duplex, most likely with FHA due to the low down payment option.

Hi BiggerPockets Community,When I initially discovered BP, I had set out a goal for myself to purchase my first [income] property by end of 2017.

I have a SMART goal related to early retirement, or at least the option of it. 

Our long term goal is to try to buy about one every 4-6 months so we can shoot for semi-retirement in 10 years or less if all goes well. 

The extent of my real estate knowledge comes from Bigger Pockets posts and podcasts, HGTV, and checking out every real estate book in the library.My goal is to learn as much as possibly by obtaining a license and then hopefully make the plunge into buying property sometime in the next year (very excited for that day).Glad to be here and I look forward to participating more in these forums :) 

I can require positive prior landlord references, though.

I had always wanted to own property but never took steps to educate myself on my goals (sounds stupid to even say that).