With Boise having a very hot retail market, I will have to learn how to find the best deals off-marketI grew up in Portland, still have family there and although things have changed a lot since I lived there (1997) I know the metro area enough to figure out where I want to invest.I'm the biggest "shiny object" chaser, and if I can't see results before the next shiny object, I get easily sidetracked. 

After 3 years of having and chasing the shinny objects in real estate, I'm finally focused on my home area which is Yonkers NY.

To be clear, we were not hiding anything - but he went back to first principles and dug through every fact he could find.

I think that you are wasting time talking to local investors about general real estate principles that can be easily gleaned from multiple books, blog posts, and podcasts available here on BP and elsewhere online.

Your objective to draw your network diagram is to locate, calculate your critical mass or critical point.

I have been using those CPTED principles quite a bit while looking.  29 years of UC and narc have given me some insight into how some areas work differently than others but it has also given me some GREAT inroads into who to see about what before things go public.And thanks for the book recommendations.  

So your doing the work and he's getting paid.Throw the offer out there worst case he declines at least your underwriting was based on sound principles.

I get a kick out of some of these guys mailing their clients a thesaurus trying to overcome every objection in the universe.

I am not 100% certain but I do not believe there are tax implications on this other than less interest paid (lower loan principle with the larger down payment) and you may need to pay taxes on the interest you pay yourself (again, not 100% certain because my retirement manager Fidelity can't offer tax advise).

The financials are certainly an important piece, but if you are borrowing from somebody, they want to know that your business can afford to service the loan but also that the principle will be recoverable.