The broker's slow motion might help scare off competition.

Amerikote,If you make purchasing decission like you type, you really need to slow down.

Congrats on graduating from UCSB and diving in deep into Real Estate!

Fiberglass should be around 18 inches deep.

4) I feel like I'm driving too slow and get anxious when people are behind me. i drive fast and feel like I'm missing properties. other than slowing down and pulling to side any tips?

And in the case of forced appreciation, we can do it fast, as in an SFR flip, or slow, as in re-positioning of apartments.

@Jeremy Brown  good points.. but real estate is so regional.. like in your region  Sacramento Placer county etc.. the agent upon opening escrow would have gotten a preliminary title report back from teh title company within 3 to 5 days.. once that is received it would clearly state at the bottom of the report if anyone other than the title owner had an interest they would need to proof themselves up and sign. so in other parts of the country ( and I find this particularly frustrating) especially attorney closing states.. they will not pull title until way deep into the transactions. ( reason they have to pay an abstractor up front to pull title ) and if the deal fails they don't want to be on the hook for the abstractor fee so you don't find out that you have an issue with title many times very close to closing date and this leads to massive frustrations on the buyers side.. ( at least it has for me in these instances. )But your correct the listing agent probably should have or did know that the seller was married and should have gone down those thought process's.. usually your in the home during the listing signup but i know now with docusign this may not be the case as much as it used to be.. as RE is moving away from much of the belly to belly aspects we enjoyed in the olden days 

I don’t doubt that this could be done once or twice; But I question how many silent partners with deep pockets that you can acquire which could create a sustainable thriving income stream.

The good people are busy and don't waste time or take on new clients that are unknown...they're just too busy with current workload. netowrking and refferals will be the best move you can make, but start slow and test these people to see if they align with your personality but also your risk appetite.

The market has clearly slowed in recent months.