Your first deal is an important one, establish your investor criteria and be firm, this is not your forever home so listen to the investor angel on your shoulder that loves the numbers, not the other voice on the other shoulder that loves the kitchen and is willing to pay a premium.  

The big firms like Keller Williams aren't super friendly for agents who are solely focused on investing.  

@karen Margrave - what I'm saying is that my broker has over 800 agents working for him and I'm thinking there will be properties that someone in that firm will have and tell him about BEFORE they get listed.  

My real estate experience started right at the beginning of the recession when I interned at a PE Real Estate fund and then transitioned to a real estate valuation consulting group at a Big 4 accounting firm.

If the lender doesn't approve the loan, you'll lose your EM without the financing contingency, but the seller has lost the time you're had the property under contract.   

There are numbers of specialized qualified intermediary firms for 1031 exchanges as well.

I was recently hired as an independent contractor to work for a small real estate investing firm.

The law firm that has been doing my settlements has been good to me, but I think they dropped the ball on this and I should recoup some of these costs on account of their lack of due diligence.

The first company to do this in Texas is affiliated with a law firm.  

I was so leary of this I spent 2k on an opinion paper from a top law firm in MS to make sure I was able to do this.. once I realized I was I bought about 2.5 million worth in 24 months.