My downfall has been that I have not focused more on my real estate investmenst than my oil field work witch has brought me to working 80 hrs or more a week.

there are two approaches to multifamily sandwich lease options or master lease options You have to be careful about contract law in the state you're in and seeing an attorney about being able to draft leases that are performance-based, another words if the tenant doesn't pay you the middleman, you do not have to pay the seller-ownerMaster lease options on an apartment building, 5+ doors, do not involve Dodd Frank or the safe act, they are in the commercial area.

Just as an example on one of them...they way over improved the property for the price point, and they also did not factor in the fact that this property did not have a yard...and Frederick is a very dog friendly city...so not having that yard really brought down the value.

A lender brought it up to me that the assessed value is low compared to the agreed purchase price and she wasn't sure it would appraise.

I am new to this forum, I was introduced to biggerpockets by word of mouth from a fellow real estate investor whom approached me at my job.

Don't be intimidated or afraid to approach some of the more experienced people.

Tim's approach seems very sensible, so we may expand our search area.Are there any rules on this forum about describing specific properties?

On the rare exception, I have approached the occupants (tenant or owner) and made it a win-win by offering back for half of what they owed and lower payments...

I haven't heard of this approach from a lender requiring a surety bond - so make sure you do your due diligence.When I bought a 200+ unit deal I used a surety bond for the utility deposits, which was a great strategy and it saved me over $30k. 

I have specific plan to achieve this goal and it is not the usual approach yo see here in BP.