Global commodities have been going down because China's not manufacturing as much anymore and they are not building as much.

I know that it takes the same amount of effort to put larger deals together as doing smaller deals.

I can find $1.75 all day long, and $1.50 with a little effort.

You can do that too, if you really don't care about the deal, don't mind walking away if anything turns on you, then by all means, fly by the seat of your pants.If on the other hand, you have time, effort, money in the deal and you want to CYA and reduce risks of not closing, then one page will not do it staying in good form.I also think the attitude of some small deal is pretty lame, a 15K property can cost you big bucks if you really mess up, the sale price may have little to do with claims against you, so every transaction needs to be entered into with more respect than buying a pack of gum. :)

LOL but not really laughing at the egregious situation here with PMs charging out the nose.I've had the same low effort (and no PM) with our 13 rentals in Atlanta area as Kevin above. 99% of our results where by design though.

So, why put so much effort into something if its only going to have less than a 1% chance of actually doing what you want it to.

As we're changing directions and gearing up our marketing efforts, we are looking to buy first, but if the motivation or need isn't there, we'll offer our aggressive selling strategies and to list the property for them.

Lots of time and effort must be lucky.

This may cost a little more than just a surface cleaning but you need to show a good faith effort.  

A key part of the solution is an offer they feel is justified and from someone they can trust -- someone who understands their needs.While your offers may be too low, it may be that you're skipping a critical part of the sales effort.