The barrier to entry is lower so they seem attractive, and to the person who knows what they are doing, they can be very profitable.

At that time it seemed like there were a lot of investors who had given up.That is not to say there is not opportunity there, but I could tell for me as someone who did not know the cities and tenant types well, it was probably going to be a lot of work for me to be profitable. 

However, the end goal can still be profitable.

This is maintained by the specific attorney’s office for the specific foreclosures they are performing.Although very profitable, Foreclosures are a poor choice for wholesaling, unless you have substantial capital.

Looking for ways to create more passive income for myself.I guess an additional question is how profitable should I expect a short term rental to be in that area? 

Which investment strategies are you thinking of pursuing?

I'm getting to a point where I might want to pursue a lender for future investments but am trying to understand how these lenders choose people to work with.These types of lenders are called "Hard Money" because they are not betting on the borrower. 

You're going to need 15-20 duplexes that are considered good deals to get to that kind of profit.

I would just go ahead and pay him the $2,000 and get it in writing that he will not pursue you going forward and then set better systems & expectations in place to avoid this problem in the future, lesson learned.

Traditionally I have sold the builder land and loaned him the money to buy the land and build the house with us splitting up the profits when it sold.