After you lock up a property/contract, is it typical to show the home to potential buyers/investors or are they expected to take your word on the price and condition? 

It is typically then sold in the traditional market to a Buyer who plans on living in the property.

(Central coastal CA)Thanks.Doing what your realtor suggests is essentially doing a "subject to" deal.

Essentially this means just putting a thin new Sheetrock over those ceiling tiles and a thin subfloor over those floor tiles.

The pendulum is in the exact opposite phase right now, for everything that didn't need to be verified at all in 2006, now it needs to be verified 3 different ways (80% of the paperwork required you actually didn't even see or provide because it was on the back end, a typical printed loan file is currently about 4 inches thick, compliance costs to originate a FNMA mortgage are about $4000 to $8000 depending on who you ask).

REO listing agents do not typically get paid as much as a traditional listing.

My question is how long does the close of escrow typically take?

Investing out of state is significantly more complex than investing local...you'll be depending on someone to be your eyes and ears...this typically creates a huge conflict when you enter an industry where half the agents can't find their *** with both hands and the other half are commission driven...you're really looking for the 1% that has well established tools for long-distance investing. 

They will typically look at a group of sales for similar type/area for the past 3 years.

I'm about to close on my second property and ideally would like to find short term tenants to get me on my typical June-May rent cycle (I rent to students).