I think this is a common sight .... so what is an eager REI investor to do?!

Too high of an opening bid, small county with low 3rd party bidders, title may look confusing, scared of too much work due to property being potentially sight unseen, etc.

Think it maybe due to out of state investors buying in areas sight unseen and without any clue or knowledge of the Chicago market (bad idea).

With inflation student loan payments are actually shrinking the longer you hold the debt as is the value of the principle on the debt.

Are sight lines good?

I glanced at your sight and i will be contacting your for more info on skip tracing. 

I can "seller finance" this property for $X with $x cash down and finance the balance of $x @ x% for x yrs... creating an income of $x per month Principle + Interest payment.""

As rough as that was, we continued to live there until we just sold in January of this year virtually at the same price we bought back in 2005 (at least we recouped our down payment and principle payments made). 

Here is my thought in 5 years the balance will be reduced by principle pay down and when I refinance even if the rate went up to 7% its only approximately $50 more based on a loan at $90,000. 

@Nick MercurioWell... the only benefit is just to have less expenses since the owner wouldn't be paying down principle.