I spend a year researching neighbors and narrowed it down to 2-3 different ones then spend a couple of months driving those neighborhoods and looking at properties before buying anything.

Then I would add a narrow kitchen island on casters, maybe 2 feet deep.  

I actually have narrowed down to 7 communities that I am interested in.Can anyone recommend someone for this?

What are the price points for B and better neighborhoods?  

I am presuming you are not taking a secured lien on real property (you should)...I would not do this deal unless you are prepared to reduce your 100k liquid to 5k and monthly payments of 833.33 a month for who knows how long.If I'm a company 60 days away from a 12 million dollar infusion, I don't put myself in the position of needing a 100,000 band-aid.  

I know I can get a list of the foreclosed homes being auctioned off beforehand.I've talked with some other folks who have done this and they advised me that out of 100 properties available, after applying review criteria they narrowed it down to three. 

I have not purchased a list from them yet as I am still narrowing down specific property criteria but ListSource has been recommended by a lot of people.

I talked to a guy named Dave who told me they buy SFH in B and C type neighborhoods in Marion County, IN.  

Once you've narrowed it down to a few ask for and check references.

I've narrowed it down to two companies, lendinghome and groundfloor.