I think D4D isn't very productive from my experience other then if there's a property you're already interested in, or like you said getting to know neighborhoods, but again this can be accomplished once you have a potential deal to go look at.2.

If you are planning on leaving the floor in for a while, do some research with people who sell the products about the newer color tones.  

Your loan officer will help you find the right product for you!

You don't want to be stuck in a variable rate product long-term.Or... depending on what your current rate is, do both (refinance into a lower rate and then put a HELOC on top). 

Especially with more fiscal stimulus, as opposed to just pure monetary stimulus, the inflation will hit consumer prices much harder and because of global reduction in production we have a deadly combination of trillions of dollars flooding the currency and fewer goods to purchase.

We're seeing the margins start to widen, and some more product with the Fed tapering but all the pricing hasn't adjusted just yet.

Unless you are an all cash, no contingency buyer, no agents going to go preview a bunch of properties for an out of state buyer who is making weak offers. 4% concession, also signals this is an FHA loan, which is one of the weakest loan products available....you need to be making aggressive offers to overcome being disadvantaged against cash buyers, which already happened to you, and against conventional loan buyers.

I do not specifically know the answers to your questions, but I believe it the loan is a in house product, so it may be lender paid mtg ins.

@Christopher Polanco Here is another product that you might look at for comparison. https://www.honomobo.com/@Andrew Ziebro I don't know if you have connected with Aaron Westerburg at our meetup yet, but he is a BP guy and is working to build a large multi-use MF building out of shipping containers in Ohio City.

Nowadays there are different types of auctions and you need to know what type and understand before you step into the property.