I work an intense corporate job, have kids at home and have ailing parents.  

She knows she wants to find work then, but needs something flexible enough so she can be home when the kids get home from school. 

Maybe there's an old lady you could push out into traffic...or a kid's ice cream cone you could knock out of his hand.

That provides light at the end of the tunnel for the seller and her kids.

Meaning finding markets and doing your homework.

@Dan Heuschele Mistakenly, I failed to mention that my goal for house hacking here in LA  is to significantly (30%-50%) reduce my living expenses, which I think is a reasonable goal for the market here and given the square footage I would need to live comfortably (I have 3 kids and 2 live at home). 

I had a lawyer set up my LLC and one of the things he asked (I'm not kidding!)

(for those of you who will only work with your cousin's step-brother's mother-in-law's next-door-neighbor who just so happens to be a newbie Realtor).Bounce Around Real Estate, Inc (for those of you who want to bounce from one Realtor to another, to another, just please keep it within our firm and we won't care).We Jump When You Call Realtors (cause we can just jump up and leave church or our kid's soccer game at 2-minutes notice to go show you a house, but please don't jump over to Bounce Around after we have "jumped around" for you).Who Cares About Appointments Real Estate, LLC (hey, just cause you made an appointment to meet us at a certain time, you really don't have to actually show up - we don't really have anything better to do).No Money, No Credit, No Problem Realtors, Inc (we're all a bunch of hunger newbies and we won't ask you for loan pre-approval cause we don't want to offend you).Cheapest Damn Realtors in Town, LLC (yep, go ahead and ask and we'll cut our commission for you, cause we don't have all of that overhead like, marketing, E&O Insurance, training, education, a website, etc - all we do is stick a sign in your yard, but hey, you're too damn cheap to pay for anything else).Sure, We'll Drive Your Arse All Around BFEgypt All Day Realtors, Inc (as long as you don't mind riding in a horse-drawn buggy since gas is so expensive and we know that there's a 70% chance that you will bounce over to Bouce Around or No Money anyway).

I said "Everything I have is for sale except my kids, you can have them for free!"

I think I know what is my homework: CMA, House condtion, select the listing that are suitable for me, etc. but how do you drive the seller to come to accept your low offer. what is your strategy (excuse the spelling).