Trying to understand this REHABBER's strategy......

[Mike Nelson]

Im looking for new ways to get some leads on potential rehabs and I took to the county records to see what properties one of the more successful Rehabbers in my area does for sniffing out good leads. Well I looked at several people he bought from over the last couple years and here is the theme I noticed from all of them. From the individuals he buys homes from they all have notice of defaults and judgements on their property 8-12 months before they are sold to the Rehabber. So it seems he contacts these people via mail or whatever with interest in buying their property. I notice that the judgements show an average of 175-250k owed on the properties. The county records show him buying them for 85-135K depending on the house. So what Im wondering, is he getting the banks to agree to sell to him far less than what is owed to avoid the hardship and heavy cost of foreclosure? I believe these are all fixer uppers if he is able to do this, and must be able to present the cost and potential ARV to the bank. IF the bank agrees to this why is it not recorded as a short sale? All the county recordings are warranty deeds either disqualified sale or Exception due to condition. And another thing I notice is after the Rehabber sells the house there are Mortgage releases recorded on the property from the Bank who held the mortgage in default. Hope I didn't confuse anyone, and maybe I interpreted something wrong..... but can someone who maybe has done this explain this to me?