BoA and Wells will make you hold for 90 days, and Chase will make you hold for 120 days unless you do "substantial refurbishment."

Some markets will be a little more substantial and some will be a little more subtle.

Again, most of the major banks cover this specifically in their approval letters (that you as a buyer would need to sign)...Wells has a "no resale for 90 days under any condition" clause in their letter.Chase has a "no resale for 120 days unless you 'substantially refurbish' or increase value" clause in their letter.BoA has a "no resale for 60 (or 90) days" (I've seen both) in their letter.The standard short sale contract in Georgia actually has a "no resale for 90 days" clause in it, though I always cross that out before submitting my offer.In fact, I just closed on the purchase of a short sale last week where Wells held the first lien and Chase held the second, so I had to sign both of their approval letters.

What I am wondering is, would it be possible with about 10k, and preapproval to arrange with a property that is in foreclosure with a scheduled auction, to get in touch with the owners, and arrange a short sale to prevent competition at an auction, mind you this is not for a multifamily but for a property with built in equity that could immediately be sold, or repaired and sold for substantial equity or should I stick to the more refined route of the multifamily until I have more liquidity to consider other ventures, is all this too vague with out more information.

However, when I was 13 or 14 my aunt gave me a book from my grandmother that influenced my investing future, Bill Nickerson's classic.

Your money = your business unless they are providing VERY substantial services.

The Journey is long but with patience and education we may retire young with substantial net worth.

The recent strong influence of a number score in the housing market comes from sub prime loans and sub prime loans only.

If you have a schedule in mind make sure they know this up front - it can and will influence pricing.

Interesting too Corey Dutton, that your results and everyone’s comments here have focused on the location, the neighborhood (which find I really, really curious), and the numbers, with absolutely no mention of the quality and character borrower.We too only loan to professional flippers with substantial experience who are in it for the long-haul.