The trick is to find the people.

Will those powerful players play tricks to achieve a better return to have us investors burned?

If so, you need to understand where they're coming from, that they're embarrassed, may be in denial and don't necessarily trust a random guy contacting them (for example, they don't know that you aren't an employee of the bank trying to trick them into giving information).To be honest, it takes a particular type of personality and charisma -- and also a keen understanding of the person on the other end of the phone/table -- to be able to connect with people in a distressed situation.

Are there any tricks or cheap ways to update a beige bathroom?

Sure, he might be kicking himself after the fact - but as long as you didn't lie or coerce him into selling the property at a low price - it's not your problem if they realize they made a dumb decision.Most of the people who sell out for pennies on the dollar already know that they're losing out big time (it's not like you're tricking them), they just don't care.

There are always things they are good at that I don't like (or want to learn how to do) & vice versa.The trick is finding the right person & also the personality match.JvM

I agree, it will come with knowledge and skills, not just RE skills, social skills, the skill of persuasion, analytical skills and intuition, that's really tough to teach.That's what a teacher is suppose to do, make the student think, if you can then great, making them think in the right direction is a real trick, especially in RE.I'm not going to hammer away at guru stuff in this thread, if people are interested in my opinions they aren't hard to find.

@Jean Bolger I know the ins and outs of CL as I post there often and know the rules, tricks etc.

Anyone have any tips or tricks to help stream line this process?

Investors used to use that trick.