The listing agent may have you work through another agent in their office in a back-scratching arrangement between them, that is fine and still puts you in a better position than coming in cold with your own agent.Talk to the listing agent during the owner/occupant period, and submit your offer just before the property enters the investor period, going in with a 'strong' offer as you're already planning.Understand and monitor DOM and interval of time from the last price drop.

Check occupancy and rental rate trends in your area.

You may also be able to claim real estate professional status, if real estate is your primary occupation.

If the cleaner can't make it, my family can do it.Our occupancy is still low overall, but we are just getting started, and so far I haven't used sites like VRBO yet.

Are there restrictions as to when the "owner occupant" can sell it?

Additionally, Fannie Mae favors owner occupants. 97% or more owner occupants are purchasing with FHA Loans, which requires the dwelling to be in particular shape.

Easiest access to sellers is MLS listings, so you're competing with a lot of entry level buyers now, and even owner occupant buyers.

IMO, for owner-occupant buyers, this is the time to make offers on short sales and wait them out.

Probably good to design in a chase or just run likes for future split AC while walls are open now.There's one big 4bd/4ba unit that I'm trying to position as attractive for a future owner occupant should I decide to later sell, which is mainly the unit I'm dealing with here.

I'm an owner-occupant here in Syracuse of a two-unit (househacking), and it seems I have the opposite situation of yours in a sense.