Rates in the high 3's are normally FHA or VA loans for primary residences.

How long do you normally have to submit an offer?  

If you can find a lender that will do that type of loan, you should expect higher than normal closing costs, higher interest rate or both.  

At some wholly illogical and unbusiness like thinking level, I think it fitting that the returns I've been told about are normally less for FC than for working out a loan.  

Some reasons why you might not want to:When buying a home you can either collect the commission the seller is offering and pay your split to your brokerage, or you can sometimes bargain down the price equivalent to your commission if you agree to not collect your commission, which would net the seller the same in essence.When selling your home if you collect commission you will have to pay your split out of that and then the rest will be taxable at your normal rate.

Local banks or credit unions normally more flexible than national brands and they also understand the local market and demands better.  

Depending on the type of account the lender may only use 65% of the value to qualify (normally 401k's, TSP's)

I put out the normal bandit signs and have received some leads but I've have the best response with driving for dollars...its also helps that my city has about 1800 vacant properties so a bulk of my time goes to yellow letters.  

I am a Graphic Designer here in Indianapolis, and Graphic Design has so far been a good career for me for the past 10 years, but like many during the great recession I was furloughed at my job for several years and made only 80% of my normal income during that time. 4 day work weeks were nice, but my wife and I had a very hard time economically during those couple years, we still managed to save money and meet the bills, we had to put off alot of things that we wanted to do but couldn't really afford.

Not running through the normal foreclosure auction either.