Long story short, to spite many setbacks and failures I completed the rehab of my first property which I now live in.

Do you have a target area you are looking to invest in?

Being an investor especially coming in I want nothing more than to build a healthy relationship with a realtor!!

You are well advised to consider ALL of the costs that go in, I can't tell you how many times I see ads that "forget" to consider many of those costs.  

If I do get the property under contract I'm 100% sure my partner will buy so I'll be able to soft sell it to him and I'm sure he'll wire the money right in.

If not having a readily available, in plain sight massive supply of applications to anyone that wanders in is fudging the rules, I guess I'm... fudgy.  

I balanced the physical labor with the fun of shopping for all the staging stuff, and I made some great friends with the neighbors for when things got a little crazy and I needed a guest bed to crash in.

Can anyone chime in?

there are several small communities close by that have older homes and an unbelievable amount of new developments going in. 

The real estate agent tells me I need to have "proof of funds" to put an offer in.