@Daniel Brown you would pool your partners money into an LLC and the HML would lend to that- and your partners money would represent the skin.

The real estate agent is the "agent" (in the literal sense of the word when talking about agency relationships), or representative, of the broker, and is also the agent or representative of the buyer or seller they are working with. 

Your sending your letter to the PR (Personal Representative) who's representing the decedents estate.

I also see that the listing agent ended up representing the winning bidder. 

Real estate agents, in properly representing their sellers, aren’t interested in letting a wholesaler tie up a property so the wholesaler can try to go make a fee.  

You don't pay anything to your buying agent, unless the seller is not represented by an agent.

I'm pretty sure utilities are metered separately, but can confirm that easy enough.We are represented by legal counsel for all our business transactions.

As many investors out on the west coast are in the same boat as yourself many markets are well represented by sellers & turnkey operators here on BiggerPockets (myself included) The most popular markets are ClevelandToledoMemphisBirminghamKCIndyDetroitEach of these markets is popular with turnkey investors because of the low barrier to entry, high rental demand & high rent to price ratio.

I was surprised when I received notice that my offer had been accepted.THE PROCESSIf I'm being fair and honest, working with the Roofstock representative was cumbersome and a bit annoying.

You can represent yourself or hire a lawyer but just know the max you will get back is 3x the deposit.