I later heard but never exactly why, that the place was an absolute money pit and the buyer, who was very experienced, regretted buying it big time.It is interesting, but I ALWAYS do at least a bit of research on the prior owners and have found few "hard luck" stories, at least as far as either higher or high priced single fams go, they're by far the same story where the owner makes the financial decision to walk away, mainly due to the insane HELOC's etc they were giving out, like 125% of home's current value back in like 2006, so now they'll owe literally like $750k on a home that IF in great shape would at best fetch $500k, PLUS they trashed or semi-trashed the place, so they'd be really lucky to get $400k as is and often they may be business owners or whatever and have a relationship with a local bank who will then know "the whole story" behind the big hit they take to their credit score and not treat it nearly as harshly as the average Joe, who's practically banned from even entering the bank for years!

Most S8 tenants have credit scores under 580, so that's not really going to help.Maybe if you checked 36th District Court records for any landlord-tenant issues...If the seller (or their PMC) actually did a Verification of Rent (VOR) with the tenant's last 2 landlords, you might find out they left a lot of damages when they moved. 

I would never sell a house subject to and put my credit score in the hands of someone else. 

Loan amount, fico score, experience and occupancy play a factor. 

Can anyone recommend the best places to learn about tax deed investing in NC, particularly in Union County and Cabarrus County (near the Charlotte area)?

We have done our borrowing with the local credit union.

For those of you that are holding cash, you may score a really good deal in the coming months.

There are plenty of small banks, credit unions, non-bank lenders who do not report to credit bureaus but that does NOT mean you do not have a debt.

I now know I need to raise my credit score a few more points and raise the 10% down payment amount for the bridge loan.

If you already explored that option I would reach out to a regional credit union that holds their own loans in their portfolio.