Please give me any words of wisdom you may have.

Ashman,When dealing in financial matters the word guarantee generally can not be used if you are talking about the return.As an individual your ability to guarantee anything is only as good as your credit and the resources you have.Best to avoid the term and describe why the deal makes sense even if you were to be run over by a bus or otherwise not able to perform.Paying yourself no fee to manage the properties tends to mean that your focus will be somewhere else.

In other words there is instant equity.Question..1 Is this common place?.

I assume you are fine with NOI calculations.Lets agree to not use the word for a minute.How do you decide on the price you want to offer after you have determined there is cash flow and that there will be equity?

I get almost all my deals these days through word of mouth/networking.

Now this program was very promising, as it was based on MS Access, which would allow for a great deal of easy customization and further manipulation of data from external programs (Word, Excel, etc).

In other words, if the deal falls through, you could still be liable to the buyer's agent, depending on the circumstances.

And I mean sell in the dictionary (persuade) sense of the word.

Their literal words with no editing for gammer, etc.

If not, well I think you can see where I am going.Regarding money down, you might not need 20% or even close but you need to factor in other up front costs depending on the strength of the dealie: Appraisal, insurance, attorney fees, ect.In other words, an investment for you usually will require an investment from you.