And I've even walked the heirs through the process.

@Grace Chee The process for this is time sensitive, you should have gotten a TRIM notice around late August, early September.

I can connect you with folks who can go more in depth on the process with you. good move or bad move?...

Because you are forcing equity into the house you are sometimes able to pull back out the entire purchase and rehab process to return to your investor then you own the home with just the mortgage.

One of the utilities, South West Gas, based in CA, gave me a hard time putting the account into my own name. after several calls, faxing the court-stamped eviction order, verifying my deed through the County, etc,  the operator finally agreed and started to backdate the account change to the beginning of the process!

The process must be understood and applied to team building, investing your and 3rd party capital, and financial deal structure with debt and equity sources. 

Still working through the process, but looks like it may work.

I find it hard to come up with reasons when the screening process is being done over the internet.

While I agree that the purchase is an important part of the process, if you buy based on price and not on the STR aspect of the deal, it could fail.You might get the best damn deal on a property in an area that makes a terrible STR thus it isn't a deal at all.

That process has direct lender involvement.Where the challenge lies, is when unsophisticated "investors" with no experience, no money and no reserves use creative financing (often called wrap, subto, lease option, seller financing, land contract) to purchase properties and along the way there is a "hiccup".