I'm negotiating the purchase of a fixer upper duplex.

After doing more research, I found that DORA states that a “Real estate broker” does not apply to any person acting personally acting as principal in acquiring or in negotiating to acquire any interest in real estate, or any person acting personally with respect to property owned or leased by that person....However, Article 1 of of the National Association of Realtors code of ethics states "Realtors®, when acting as principals in a real estate transaction, remain obligated by the duties imposed by the Code of Ethics." which includes all of the disclosure requirements.I found that the requirement to run all transactions thru the employing Brokerage comes from their rules that require them to monitor all transactions from employed brokers. 

I know the answer obviously depends on your local market or how hard you negotiate but just wanted to see what some folks were actually doing in practice.   

When negotiating a contract assignment with your end-buyer, what is the criteria used for determining how much of an earnest deposit to ask for, in order to insure the end-buyer has some skin in the game and is not so prone ti back out of the transaction during escrow?

So my question is, can i expedite that process in any way and talk to anyone in particular who can allow me to negotiate directly with the bank or do i really just have to wait forever until it gets listed?

They have their own longstanding business and great credit, but have been denied loans from lenders recently due to  some debt on the business.This seems like a crazy situation, I'm trying to figure out if there is a way to profit here, but other than negotiating a shortsale i can't see it.  

I did find out that this property is being sold due to a dissolving partnership and the price is negotiable, but not a fire sale. 

I recently had some push back with a new occupany for June but explained it was non negotiable.

I also think he's a bit negotiable on the asking price.

And, of course, they want full indemnification for basically all but burning the place down themselves.I don't know if I want to start the relationship off with what I perceive to be an attempt to rip me off, even if I can negotiate it back down to reality.But before I do anything, am I wrong that this is outrageous?