A real estate broker, for the purposes of this article, is defined to be a person, firm or corporation who, for a fee, commission or other valuable consideration, or by reason of a promise or reasonable expectation thereof, lists for sale, sells, exchanges, buys or rents, or offers or attempts to negotiate a sale, exchange, purchase or rental of real estate or an interest therein, or collects or offers or attempts to collect rent for the use of real estate or solicits for prospective purchasers or assists or directs in the procuring of prospects or the negotiation or closing of any transaction which does or is contemplated to result in the sale, exchange, leasing, renting or auctioning of any real estate or negotiates, or offers or attempts or agrees to negotiate a loan secured or to be secured by mortgage or other encumbrance upon or transfer of any real estate for others, or any person who, for pecuniary gain or expectation of pecuniary gain conducts a public or private competitive sale of lands or any interest in lands.

I tell people NEVER to pay advance fees with the exception of an appraisal.

With that being said I'd rather not do the latter two and find a lender that will be ok with me paying fees and interest out of pocket.

Originally posted by @Rich Davis:Oh ok.

The sister who originally had gotten sick died and afterwards the sister who had stepped into the house had caught up the mortgage/utilities and continued to live there paying everything as her own.

Originally posted by @Jim Wilcox:@Jordan Callaway welcome for finally making that account and joining the conversation on BP.

@Doug Rich, @Justin Mespelt, what I forgot to mention was that we were also offering to pay any appraiser an additional $1,000 on top of their normal fee in order to get our appraisal done.

Our last project is on the first page of Google for "houses for rent" in the particular city, generating ~10k leads per month, with a strong conversion rate where the lead fills out a lengthy application and pays an application fee. 

Originally posted by @Tabor Tollefson:Driving around is one of the best ways to find deals.

Building was built in the 1960s I believe and has a ground lease (causing the HOA fees to be very high).