There are some pretty serious high-income earners here that are fairly heavily invested in RE, such as Jay Hinrich, and I'd be interested to hear their take on the issue. 

With Short Sales nowadays, it is very important to:1) Show and document as much owner hardship as possible.2) Very heavily influencing the BPO, is a very important component as well.As far as the lending institution having the owner carry back leftover on an unsecured note.

In our area there are some insurance companies where their renters insurance policies will cover spoiled food from a refrigerator that died.We heavily advise tenants to obtain renters insurance.

If the unit was especially heavily used, replace all of the windows.

Having my 2yo son definitely helps add fuel to the fire that was nothing more than glowing embers.3 Single Family homes & 1 duplexAll in stable low B to B+ areas and not far from another investment property I haveSounded as if I'd have one nightmare tenant I'd need to part ways withGross monthly rents $3800 - if I updated the units I am confident  I could at min bump that figure $500 or more a moTax value of properties ~$350k  (I need to get inside the SF properties but $330-400 is probably a realistic market value as is now for the properties retail wise)Owner said they'd sell for $380k and be willing to owner finance for 5 years (w possible balloon payment - I proposed those terms - no cash down)I really need to get into the 3 single family homes and the other occupied unit of the duplex, but drove by them all and they looked in pretty decent shape on the outside -- one of the SF's they just invested $40k in within the past 5 years or so due to a hoarder situation and deferred maintenance so the house has been heavily overhauled - most have newer roofs and were built in the 50's (which around here was a good time period for construction - good lumber, homes are brick etc, duplex built in 1979 - from the unit I was in it's just cosmetically dated which would be no big deal for me to fix once someone moved out to make it more desireable)What I was going to propose is if they would owner finance $380k - accept payments from me of $1055.56 per mo (380000 / 360 mos/30 years) - I'd pay the equity down for 5 years then at the end of year 5 we possibly renegotiate to pay part of it off by myself obtaining bank financing, all of it off, etc.Ideally I'd like to see if I could get them to do this same deal for $350k or a bit less but the numbers work at $380k for me with no cash in.  

You need to consider the fact that they will likely be heavily damaged.Tenants will abuse the hell out of them so do not expect felt pads and lease language to be of any use..

I want to use my license as a means to make extra money, learn about the business from the inside,ultimately quit my day job, and eventually only use my license for my own investment deals.I think your decision should weigh heavily on your long-term and short-term goals and how you could potentially reach them with a given brokerage.

We have been marketing heavily, hitting the county probate list, tax delinquency list, inheritance list and have created an absentee owner and equity owner list as well. 

For that project, we relied heavily on family to subsidize our costs and help perform the work at a lower cost.  

Nashville is not a friendly market for wholesalers right now as it is pretty heavily picked over, but there is always a good deal out there to be found.