I have a 1/2 a mind to walk away from the thing altogether.

Depending on how things go, I may go with a flat fee listing agent and save money there.Rick Baggenstoss I was able to walk through yesterday with a contractor.

When I tried to explain to the agent and her broker about this being a wholesale deal and there's usually no buyer's agent or commission involved and that I was only agreeing to pay the agent a flat fee b/c I felt she had helped the buyer it just got complicated.

@Ben Johnstone That does include our permit fees, and figuring a flat lot.

For example, I tend to avoid flat roofs and two-pipe chiller systems.

If you're looking for a list in a specific county and it's not current enough on one of these data services, your next bet is to try a different data service (like DataTree, for example) or try and get the list directly from the county (or just try a different county altogether).The problem I've seen with ListSource is that they don't allow you to verify how old the data is (which is a major oversight, in my opinion), you just have to download and trust it (at least, that's how it worked last time I checked). 

Altogether 200k invested and I keep kicking myself in the backside when I think about how many SF properties I could of had.

I don't know your financial situation but it really doesn't matter - some people jump in get lucky and through hard work become successful others come properly equipped and fall flat on their face, I've seen it...The main problem new investors will have is capital issues... also inexperience with high credit and a few hundred K in the bank is dangerous.

In a market where I can probably get a contract within days, is it worth spending the money on granite counter tops vs refinishing the laminate, upgrading from flat to six panel interior doors, etc.What has been your recent experience.

Perhaps your end Buyers will be "flat-footed" (like the hitter facing his first knuckle ball) and a confused Buyer is usually a No-Buyer.Rough time in the 10 year Tbill world.