I was told that there are crucial elements of investigating a property before even attempting to buy it.

Also, from my investigation, it seems that I might not be eligible since I do not have a 'business'.

I just opted out of a REO deal since the bank would not provide access to the crawl space under the home to investigate and estimate the cost to stabilize the settling that was obvious from inside the home.

Personally I would investigate various passive investments and invest only a small percentage in any one project or investment thus diversifying yourself.

Spend the time and money to investigate the areas you are considering and get going on the purchase sooner than later.

After more investigation turns out it was 540k.

But, the investigators with Smart Money couldn't find any records of them.

If you are good at finding leads and doing research, it may be a viable route.Though, you probably want to investigate this a little further as it pertains to your area.

Thanks Rick, it dumbfounded me how a closing attorney/title agent would insure a title gained by AP without investigating it.

Usually people get in trouble (and come her on BP to get feedback) trying to use wacky ideas of how to circumvent the OO period to just buy property cheaper.It doesn't sound like that is your intent, but unfortunately others doing that gives the process a bad name and are the reason there are mortgage fraud investigations in the first place.