My advice is to be patient, and work with an agent who is PROACTIVE, has a great relationship with other agents (hears of deals before they hit the market), and I would also encourage you to look at some deals that have been on the market more than 30 days.

I encouraged and supported this idea because I reminded him that in pressure situations our body acts quicker than our mind and we need that conscious reminder to calm down.

I'd encourage you attend these. 

That should be a flat bonus, that way they are not encouraged to hurry their efforts. 

It gives both perspective and also provides encouragement as I'm currently looking at 3-4 other deals in Birmingham too. 

Thanks, @Scott Wolf, that's encouraging to hear, as is the note about making a good application.

I always encourage new agents to think if they were absolutely strapped for cash, how they could generate leads.   

In CA we can't mandate they do so, so how best to encourage them to do so? 

I want to be encouraged and educated.

A couple hundred for your time is fine but some charge way too much.Markups on maintenance just encourage maintenance and make the pm more likely to agree to repairs or upgrades when they aren’t needed.