Its been on the market now for almost two weeks and I have had at least 8 showings and have feedback from several brokers that their customers are very interested, including one the other night that showed them six houses and this was their definite favorite, but they all want more info on what was done to the basement, which I've been providing (I'm also the listing broker) as well as giving them the contact info for the contractor.

House doesn't have gutters, but I've had a man come out and quote a French drain solution.

Is it the availability and customer service?

They won't be impressed with guru stuff either, not off the bat.What will impress them is your actual knowledge of RE, your market, assessing repairs and valuations that may lead them thinking in conventional terms of selling at which point you can then introduce more creative solutions that may fit the circumstances and solve the seller's problems,To do that you need to know RE, not methods of putting square pegs in round holes, you need to begin with the basics in the principles of real estate and then evolve to higher levels to suggest sound solutions.Knowledge can overcome the obstacles you may find in being taken seriously.

My customer likes the property and his partner will see it in a few weeks.

If you want to work with investors, try searching for local brokerages that also provide property management solutions and reach out to them to see if they're taking on more agents.

You are the customer, you have the money, they have competitors who will be happy to take your business.

Being a landlord and property manager albeit my company is strictly commercial (retail and office space currently) when a tenant has an issue we respond immediately with a solution and as well we value our properties and keep them in immaculate shape.

Not necessarily looking for a long term solution (not worth putting in a drain tile given the type of basement it is), just something that can get it dry enough for an extended period to paint the floor.

The solution that I thought of is to have a good friend of mine who is interested investing with me be the one who gets pre-approved for the hard money loan but I don't know if 1) will that work and 2) how I could structure/arrange that so that we can move forward with him as my financial partner?