While they may not be super interesting to most retail buyers, they make for good rental properties oftentimes.  

After doing research and educating myself on this method, I found the sellers are the hardest ones to find, not so much the buyers.

A house is only worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it .  

The new buyers were either shifting lots cash from some place else and were not worried about returns vs. asking price,   or are expecting to get around $2K per unit in a seattle suburb.  

I'm assuming the house is furnished being a model home and that the builder is "renting" it for purposes of showing the house to prospective buyers in that development.If the above is correct it's possible the buyers could insure the house as a vacant property.I think an attorney should write up something for both parties to sign showing the builder assumes liability while showing the home.

This is not true - if you're going to represent buyers or sellers you have to have a license, but if you're going to be successful with Real Estate investing, you will be successful either with or without a license. 

This is what I mean by the concept less is more, you have to know your market and your particular demographic; who will be your end buyer.

By the time September comes around, you will have analyzed over 100 deals and should be very comfortable with numbers, and be on every single cash buyer's list out there. 

The lender bakes in the risk of so many loans defaulting and they lose all money lent or partial of it.If buyer is looking for slightly higher interest than first position then they do not know the debt markets and that is dreaming.

Pittsburgh certainly is a city on the rise due in part to the technology boom in our area, a strong established healthcare system, A Mayor and our County Executive who are very proactive on their initiatives that are attracting big businesses, a strong recovering economy and the continuation of new construction.