Again I'm sorry this happened but you also learned enough to make sure your next deal is a winner!

Then find yourself a rental/inspector guru that knows what constitutes a winner rental property based on your capabilities.

Yeah I might stick with that, it’s hard to find deals anywhere but at least you can get deals done in the smaller markets, in addition to flip I got I lost out on another one by 4K and probably should have just gone higher, a few other deals I was interested in “only” got 4 offers and they were well priced, my point is it’s hard everywhere but you can deals done in these types of areas. almost any asset class in any major metro is just over saturated and you end up with a “ winners curse” when bidding .

Yeah, lawyers are the winners here.

Laminate counter tops look ok, not great, but they show very little wear over time and are cheap to replace when they get damaged.We use agreeable gray paint for the walls in all of our rentals - it wears well, shows dirt less than white.Agreeable gray paint is definitely a winner for my rentals also. 

If this can be bought for $200K or less, it's a winner. 

Im a former Marine and long time business owner but new to real estate investing.

My plan to scale up to around 10ish properties, let them grow a bit, sell off the slower cash flow properties and roll that equity into the 3-5 winners.

@Kelsey VanSleenFor a tax deed sale, essentially you will bid to pay off the tax lien that was placed on the property and then you will inherit the rights to ownership of that property if you are the winner.

I am an active duty Marine so we do have access to the VA loan.