That amount may differ from person to person, but if it is 0% you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.

Even if you could buy a home at a steal right now, most buyers would need to physically go and see the property, bring a home inspector to assess the property, and—assuming you get an accepted offer and arrive at the virtual closing table—you will need to hire contractors to work on the property, or find a tenant willing to move in this crisis.

@Joe "This is very difficult to achieve with properties that are listed on the market as Tim mentioned because of the high closing costs here for real estate agent fees, etc" - because you are looking for rental candidates (not selling the property), the classic official fee would be 2 months rent (not terrible, compared to other markets) and can be squeezed down as well...

In fairness, it was a generic question so I should have expected a generic response..I've since read the Book on Tax Strategies, and I feel like there was some additional things that I could have been doing..not necessarily the CPA's fault for not knowing/offering the same info to me, but I can't afford to leave any money on the table here.The only reason I'm asking the hivemind is I want to tread lightly because I respect this guy; he reached out to me and gave me an hour of his time when my wife passed to help me get stuff straightened out..but I also want to feel confident that he's going to be giving me recommendations tailored to my situation.I was just thinking of asking if he knew about self-directed IRAs as a kind of litmus test..anybody else have any non-confrontational questions that I could use to see if I should still use him?

That way, when a deal arises: (1) we don't have to spend the time to get to know each other and (2) the deal will more likely be a good fit and we can act quickly.Keep in mind that, without a "deal on the table", some HML's might not want to spend a lot of time; others might be open to a 30-minute coffee talk.  

I’m interested in deals that make sense, meeting potential partners, and innovative construction techniques that save time & money.What I bring to the table in a potential partnership is money, good credit, construction management and estimating expertise, 4 in-house master carpenters, medium risk - high reward tolerance, design sense, and a splash of humor.DM if you would like to connect or think I could help you in some type of way.

We show them both the classic (non-renovated) units and a premium unit.

If this FL condo will persistently give you a bad taste, ask the lender if he has E&O insurance - he might need it, but leaving the whole deal on the table might still be best option.   

The lender either wasn’t involved in the project besides cutting the check(s) or didn’t bring any additional value to the table.

It is still true that if you can't figure out who the fish is at the table after five minutes it is you; however, the time, effort, and skill needed to find the fish at the proverbial table isn't particularly high in most RE niches, at least from my experience.