The main reason was I was tired of losing out on listings to the market leader in my area.  

You post a thread bashing realtors with your main argument being they cost you 10k, but you won't provide detials?

My main point for this discussion is to get more information from the community here at BiggerPockets.

Eventually I would like to do mainly buy and holds while occasionally flipping houses when I can make an oppurtunity happen.

I can get up to 10 with both of my main sources.  

The main reason that (individual ) Chinese are investing in the US is for self-use or for their kids going to study there.

Listsource to find cash buyers.The main idea is to find the investors who paid cash for their properties.

Prior to deciding I wanted to get involved in Real Estate Investing, I was an at-home-mom, mainly because I don't do well blindly taking orders from a Boss that will under pay me and also day care is crazy expensive when you have more than one kid... 

The 3 main problems with not having it 'under contract' with the seller arise when 1) You do  a bunch of work only to have someone else buy the property and you get zilch 2) You do a bunch of work and the 'investor' buys it and gives you nothing.  3) You do a bunch of work and the investor passes or can't buy it after all.  

The main concern for me right now is the heat, although I could potentially meter the domestic water usage as well, but it would be more difficult due to the way the water lines are installed.