@Victor Steffen waiting on the seller to finish the renovations they promised (3 weeks left), then will do the appraisal.We have 5% down payment locked in with our lender and the property rents out for $4,400/month.

What areas of the city do you find most promising?

I simply won't .. and I was just commenting that its totally accepable to put backup offers in on real estate.. happens every day. its a risk for wholesalers who are really acting as brokers and have no ability to close of course.. but wholesalers that can and do close its no threat to them.. they just close like they promised up front.. not like many wholesalers that blatantly lie to sellers to get into contract and then hope to assign.

OMG reading Amy Bonis site, they sound promising.

As a wholesaler, when you find a promising property and it is owned by a bank or is foreclosed or pre foreclosed, how do you go about approaching the owner or closing the deal?

A common denominator in people who get screwed in overseas investing is that they send money to someone they don't know who makes big promises.  

The lowest closing cost / rate / etc lender (HML or otherwise) out there promising all sorts of whimsical numbers at the preapproval stage probably isn't going to deliver, at the end of the day (the whimsical numbers go away once you're in contract and live to lock, or the whimsical numbers stay but it isn't going to close making the whimsical numbers irrelevant).

I promise you it will save your butt.One tactic I use is to always ask everyone you talk to: What am I missing?

In CA, this is at standard 3 days.What I would do in your situation is give them this pay or quit notice and word it so that the due date of payment before the beginning of eviction procedures falls on the date that your tenant has promised to pay you.  

Most of the time, you'll get nothing but more promises and still no money.