What was turned down last week, might be acceptable today.2nd problem, if this realtor is representing the seller, or the buyer and seller, she cannot disclose the actual dollar amount of previous offers.  

You will hear a lot of people say NEVER to buy on pro forma, and only buy on actuals.  

I actually still live at home in South Gate and I commute to Irvine for work.

Go ahead and give bad advice.You're simply repeating yourself and becoming tiresome, without offering any actual evidence to support your position.This is actually a fascinating idea.

Anyway, she claimed she was "never" late...she was actually never on time. 

As Account Closed pointed out, you should have had an actual Approval Letter first, which details the price, costs to be paid by both parties and a Net to the bank.  

He’s actually got some lines on apartment rental management deals as we speak.

We didn't actually purchased, but JVed with the properties.  

We've seen them for sale, but when does it make sense to actually buy one of these and what does it take to make it a successful investment?  

I actually bid up the price between myself and the auto bid software to what I felt was the rock bottom lowest they would accept, and they did!