What would a pro do in this situation?

[Orion Walker]

The other day my agent set me up to see a place that won't come on the market for a week or two. Two somewhat run down 2/1 houses in a nice neighborhood with 1% rule or better potential (which is pretty hard to come buy around here). They've connected with my agent to sell the place, have a decent price in mind, but sound like they might be open to negotiation. So I went and saw the places with my agent and the owner is there, working on fixing up various things. She lives couple hours away, she's driving hours to come paint and stuff herself. I walk around and check it out and think it could be a really good opportunity for the right price. I thought about trying to talk options with the owner, but felt awkward about that given that my agent was there.

So I'm wondering, what would a pro do in a situation like this? I'm not currently in a position to make a cash offer, but it seems like someone with experience might really be able to capitalize in that situation or if not right then, would have a good strategy to move on this property. I could shop it out to contacts, I could try to go back over and talk to the owner directly, see about getting an owner carry, an option to buy, I could work up the numbers and just put in an offer before they list...

Anyhow, struck me as the kind of situation that I could learn from. What would you do?