I own 9 units so far that I purchased traditionally- but now I want to try and scale fast.

I was approached by a commercial developer who wants to buy the land and tear down the house and turn it into a fast food drive thru restaurant.

But on the flipside, things don't come crashing down as hard/fast as they do here either ..... theoretically. 

If you have hard money loans at 12%, get out of them as fast as possible with lower rates... but if you have a long-term note at sub-5%, I would expect you could use the cash you'd be putting into paying down your mortgage to make more money elsewhere... just make sure you're making more than the interest you're paying on your mortgage ;)I'm no professional RE investor (yet), so take my thoughts for what they're worth. 

The e-mails have been fast and furious about interest in the property.

Tell them how you can buy their house FAST, AS-IS with CASH.

Knowing he had another offer, we didn't want to play too much hard ball especially since it was in a neighborhood that is would sell fast. 

I'd still want to get it a few grand less so if s@&t gets real it will be easier to sell and sell fast without taking a big hit.  

The paper was just trumpeting that median prices have hit the same level as 2006 and that houses are selling as fast as they are listed. 

I have learned to get professionals to do things for me fast and at a high level.