How have you been making payments so far, to a servicer or directly to the seller? 

You are going to need to see their tax returns to see if they are telling the truth.And what is the interest rate that they are offering you?

You could go to work for a remodeler too perhaps giving bids, selling service or see if they will train you to be on a crew.You could also go to work as an ISA for one of the big wholesalers. 

So…either the cheaper property has to be close, or the gain has to be massive. 

My recommendation would be to choose potential markets - in several price points - that have strong rental demand and year-over-year rent increases and that also are in markets that are appreciating. 

And the ONLY people being foreclosed on have to have purchased very recently and have zero equity.

That's correct and having access to the mls 

I won’t pretend to be an expert by any means as I have only been at this for 4 years and have 5 properties, but I thought it could be helpful to share actual numbers and different ways to look at them.

Quote from @Tom Grieshammer: What is the profit to effort ratio between self managing a long term rental and hiring out a short term rental?

This is eerily similar to the unsecured loans I've made and haven't seen a payment on in over two years.