If they try to pressure me further to make an offer, I tell them that if they’re looking for the best offer then they should list with a real estate agent and that if I wanted to make a highest and best offer, I’d go to the foreclosure auction.- If I don’t have permission to call back on the first contact (second and additional, I could care less if they say “I’ll call you” unless they explicitly say they’re not interested), then they’re disqualified in my business.

Or maybe both - have the city apply pressure while you offer carrots. 

You are better off spending the time to make a good decision than making a pressured decision, see 1. on selling from a position of strength. 5.

After looking at this problem for approximately 2 months we determined that the water meter was registering the water coming in to the property and as water pressure is fluctuated downstream from the meter.

This takes a lot of the pressure off of you because worst case if you don't get the values right on the back end of your first flip you can just live there a little longer until the market catches up, since you need a place to live anyways.Ideally I'd start there and as you get more comfortable take on bigger projects and straight up flips. 

Then measure the opening to make sure its square as many times the opening is not square and causes pressure against window and it will not open.

There is a lot of paid research you can subscribe to and you can predict housing economics on a macro level pretty well, but you can't account for short term, black-swan type events like covid.Unless the US population suddenly shrinks by 20% or we find a way to will 5 million housing units into existence, supply/demand will continue to create upward pressure on price.

It is difficult when it feels like there is pressure to own your own home but I think there are a lot of situations where it makes sense to rent.

Among the 17 largest cities we see 4 currently in a buyer's market below 90, 3 balanced between 90 and 110, and 10 in a seller's market over 110...Overall, the market is more favorable to sellers than we expected in December and downward pressure on pricing has been largely eliminated, except in a few market segments.The more favorable situation has started to bring more sellers into the market and new listings have been more plentiful over the last week.

Trying to gauge the right level of due diligence to be done right at the get-go, and avoid wasting time or getting involved in a scam (not being too pessimistic!).