@HAILEY ERSKINE Why not pursue purchase money mortgages...no banks, no credit checks...your energy and cash outlay needs to be focused on marketing, not looking at MLS deals through an agent...or buying retail property...

I had a great conversation with @Kay Kay Singh today about the depreciation of gas stations, and thought I would share some relevant information regarding the tax laws for the general benefit of the BP community.Gas Stations (or 'retail motor fuels outlets' as they're called by the IRS) are depreciated over 15 years, and not 39 years like almost all other commercial properties.If any one of the following three criteria are met: It is not larger than 1,400 square feet. 50% or more of the gross revenues generated from the property are derived from petroleum sales. 50% or more of the floor space in the property is devoted to petroleum marketing sales.Here is the link to the IRS publication on this subject where the above words were take from.

Align yourself with the right investor focus agent and team and you will be able to know all the off market deals and MLS properties that have been overlooked by the traditional retail agent. 

But if i am looking a property for a housing track they will give me for free a developers package which is a huge 3 ring binder with all sorts of data  from demographics utlities zoning and if I request a full title search.. this all for free.. with the expectation if i buy that development they are going to get 10 to 50 million in title policies.. from my retail buyers.  

On a Tax deed you are actually buying the property at near retail price in most cases.

I have several years in the past where I was a licensed mortgage broker in both retail and commercial arenas (2008 We all know that story!!!)

In my opinion this is because there is just a surge of so many houses being sold on the retail side right now.

We typcially avoid northeast and southeast parts of town for retail flips. 

later, it went through foreclosure auction and some sucker paid retail for it because it looked good on the outside.Don't base your bid on the outside looks.. 

The more we learn, the more creative we get.Our first purchase together, a duplex for just under $75k, was super conventional: we purchased in our name (not our LLC), we paid retail, we put 30% down and got a 30-year conventional residential mortgage.