investing with a real estate agent

[Brian Naley]

Ok, I'm currently dealing with a real estate agent in Ashburn,Va but she has never dealt with a wholesaler before. She is telling me I have to put a honest deposit of $1000 down for every offer I make. There is no way I can afford to put that much down for every offer. Is this the same with other real estate agents too? Should I get a new real estate agent that dealt with wholesalers before? Is it worth the time to put offers on bank owned property? I'm getting ready to put a offer on a REO worth 350K according to the areas comps for 215K. Repairs are probably around 30k at least. Someone point me in the right direction on what I should be doing.

[Don Sheppard]

I have just been including a photocopy of a deposit check made out to a local title company with all my offers presented through my realtor. She just keeps a copy of that and my preapproval letter to include with each offer. I change the title company info only on the occasions that the seller has indicated they require a specific title company handle the transaction.
For short sale offers, I have just stated that I would open escrow upon acceptance. I have one right now that loss mitigation last week said it looked like a good offer and so it was handed over to their negotiator.