I found a contractor through the listing realtor and he bid all of the work except the HVAC, which I located another subcontractor. 

Go around the nation, you'll notice this is a common trend.You need to bid deeper, and agents need to start pricing things more appropriately. 

A lot of flippers and turnkey companies taking advantage of "hyped up investors" and selling them Class C & D rentals without telling them the whole story.Not sure there's anything wrong with the Memphis market, but did hear Nashville is slowing.Detroit is still growing and we've helped a lot of investors with "BRRR Turnkeys":1) We help source a "fixer-upper", but don't really care who you buy it with2) We handle the renovations, providing bids & video completion updates3) We find a tenant4) We manage the property It's cheaper than buying a Retail Turnkey AND you know exactly what rehab was done and the quality of all the work that gets hidden behind drywall:)DM us if we can help with anything else.

The red flag here for me would be the willingness to overpay when they’re not bidding against anyone.

Location is causing the hyper discrepancies it looks like above average to the bottom are stagnating to falling but great to primo locations of Miami are still perma-bid.

I'm about ready to retire so I'm not looking to compete in a bidding war, mainly looking for a fair deal that I can rehab or a turnkey with some cash flow. 

The mortgage foreclosures require the state to acquire three appraisals of the property, the opening bid on the auction will be 70% of the average assessment as the opening bid.  

With this national exposure the investor producing the highest LEGITIMATE bid has just established “the market” price.I have found some strategies effective in building real wealth through real estate investing1.

Many insurers have left the state so it is important to be able to get the correct STR insurance.Start calling around and get some bids and ideas on cost and fit it into your budget before you start offering on properties.

Were you bidding on the property knowing that the owners were deceased, or it just happened to work out that way?