There are several units for sale but none seem like good deals to my amateur eyes (or preliminary analysis I've attempted).

You have some good questions but a little more specifics about your strategy would help as well.Rockford is attempting to attract visitors through youth/amateur sports and tourism.  

Any time you enter into a business that requires no cash, no education or no license you will be overwhelmed with bottom feeders and amateurs.

Amateurs or the poor I suppose think they have to negotiate any price on an investment to make it valuable to them, try buying a round lot (100 shares) of United Tech  or O'Reilly Auto  or 3M stock and see how your negotiation goes.

Working with multiple agents for the same purchase is an amateurs mistake.  

Well, I've become an amateur forensic real estate agent; being passed from one department to another in the City of Baltimore Department of Housing. 

This will be the catalyst to burst the marketThis is amateur hour institutionalized...just like the stock market :)

Saving money is for amateurs or scaredy cats , I put it right up there with losing weight......all it does is make you miserable and remind you how screwed you are all the time..:)    

It is done by amateurs that have a short life span in this business.  

One of the big problems that BP reveals is that most amateur investors seem to believe that real estate is not a business.