The contractors I do find, those that would even answer their phones, want cash payment, no receipt...my cell phone was running out of juice, and no power at home or rental to charge. 

Thank you Youssef Menkhour for your answer ,Mazin El-Achkar, can you explain what you ment in-active listings keep going down which makes it harder to find assets in general in Montreal. what do you mean in active listing?

Come back with specific questions, after doing some reading, and I'm sure people will try to answer them.  

You did answer my question though.

@Cayce Fedberg this is a question only you can answer, but I would challenge you to look in a one hour radius before abandoning your market.

The goal is to figure that out for yourself, no can answer it for you!

So i thought that a short sale would be the answer.

I figured I'd throw this out here and see what responses I got before hitting the podcasts again (could take me quite a while to find the answer by listening to all of them again ;)).Thanks in advance!

Let me know if that answers your question @Kadeem Wells 

There are many agents out there, but it’s important to choose the right one.https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/5868/52724-im-new-to-investing-how-do-i-find-an-investor-friendly-agentI love answering questions if you have any!