Your best bet is going to be to join the facebook groups, there are 3 major ones in Lansing.

You win in real estate by never being forced to buy/sell or by taking the loss that can break you.

If they aren't able to reduce your taxes then they don't get paid.I assume they are selective about which appeals they will take on since there is no benefit to them or the homeowner to not be able to win an appeal, but I have no knowledge of their internal business logic. 

If it's going to tax foreclosure, and you win, you can wait 120 days for the IRS to come after you to collect...they usually don't unless it's a very juicy property. 

If you're looking to avoid a rather large tax hit, a 1031 is probably your best bet.  

After well over 1000 houses it’s proved it’s worth.BUT if you think sugar coating will work sprinkle sugar all over the conversation. certainly nicey nice communication and unabashed laughter will get you elected but it won’t buy many houses. our product is money and we best not forget that. there’s a power exchange happening in every conversation and the one who blinks first fails unless winning isn’t important.  

You make a solid point - quality over quantity can definitely be a winning strategy, especially if those Midwest properties are in areas that don’t have strong long-term potential.

So a nicely decked out  cabin I bet would rent real well for STR purposes  Not sure about permits etc..

I could model what held-for-sale properties would potentially sell for and on a weekly basis adjust our model parameters based on what winning bids were for the week.

How can we make this a win-win situation?