Said another way; Because most successful realtors are also property investors, what's to stop realtors using "buyers" to find deals for themselves.I suppose that the answer is obvious: don't use a realtor for buying, but it's my first property, I I want to ensure that I don't miss a legal step that ends up costing me huge money - and I'm not so good at negotiating - and Realtors are necessary to determine fair market value.This situation seems to have happened to me, whereby I found a good deal, then asked my Realtor to show it to me.

You have to interview buyers under the time constraint of the purchase contract...and you might not find a buyer, might find buyers that have criteria that doesn't match what you found, might find only buyers that aren't real, or find a real buyer only at the last minute that knows there is a gun to your head and you have no negotiating power.A better approach is to align yourself with a couple of really solid, active, no-nonsense buyers.

We're in negotiations on 2 more properties now, which will bring us up to 16 units and 5 rental properties.  

You or your agent needs to call the listing agent and ask if it's possible to negotiate repairs.

After spending a lot of time online and having one house go under contract the day I put my offer in and having another house go with a different offer after a few days of negotiating, I've finally found a house that  I'm going to buy!  

Home owners can list the property for whatever price they want, so to base a decision off the list price is very un-savvy.It takes work to get a property under contract, and I don't have time to scour the MLS all day and negotiate terms with the agent so if a wholesaler sends me a deal... and it's above list price... and the comps are there to support the resale value to hit my target ROI, I'll pull the trigger. 

I signed many contracts over the years and they always require back-and-forth negotiation.

Typically this is negotiated as part of the cost whereas the funds from th purchase pay off the lien.

I guess what I'd want to know, if the seller has equity, and hasn't made a payment in months, how are you negotiating the purchase price?

In 1992 I was negotiating the purchase of a 4,400 sq ft commercial building.