What would you do?

First off you have to lock up this property. If you tell the broker about your buyer without locking it up he can very easily contact that buyer and delete you from the transaction all together. Now, you're getting it for $70,000 under FMV so there's a lot of room for profit. You have to take its condition into consideration and deduct the cost of repairs from that $70,000 to reveal the remaining profit. I would suggest bird dogging it, you just need to have the exclusive rights to sell to your investors or you could be doing everyone a favor and getting nothing in return. Another option would be purchasing the house, making repairs and then re-listing it. I wouldn't necessarily count on the one response you got on craigslist, but it sounds like you may have found a good deal. A buyers list would be a great thing to have for a deal like this, but the bottom line is you have to get this property locked up before you actually make that connection between the buyer and the bank.

I have a different perspective of bird dogging. I did a bit of it as my first real estate deals. They were basically good faith transactions for me, but a simple agreement paper could be signed between you and the investor. As a bird-dogger, you dont have to lock up the property. You find the great deal, tell your investors, then they do their due diligence and if it ends up that they purchase it you get your bird dog fee. For me that was $500.00. Doesnt sound like much, but then i didnt do a whole lot of work either so I was happy. I was basically just the middle man and the investor was happy that I did the work to find the deal where the numbers worked. I'm sure that the farther below market value you find, the greater your bird dog fee could be.
That is one of the great things of bird dogging - it doesnt take up anything but your time.

You could do a double closing on it and make a good profit from it.

Although we have good credit, we've found brokers can't find lonas in today's market for nothing down, they want 20%. We might be able to scrape up maybe...$10,000 if we sold our children...lol. Moreover, we couldn't afford the $1,500 monthly payment if it sat more than a month before selling. Though getting a loan is not totally out of the question, it is unlikely and maybe too risky at this point.

Regarding the double closing; In addition to the above concern, how do we avoid paying closing fees twice...That is, once for me and once for the new buyer?

Regarding the property, it is only 6 years old and in GREAT condition. No rehab required. FMV is between $345k and $389k; and the bank just lowered their offer $14,000 from $289k.

Bird dogging it to the investor is a possibility, I just don't want to be cut out of the deal. I guess the question is two fold, who should I approach first and with which strategy?

Thanks for the insights and I REALLY appreciate your thoughts. Please keep them coming as I'll make a decision come Monday.

Rick

Have you asked your buyer to paying the closing fee's? What state are you in? Typically closing fee's are less than $1000 here in Missouri.