I have been told over and over that physicians are notoriously bad with money and before I start investing I want to pull myself out of the "bad" category and at least into the "mediocre" category or better. 

Most professional investors don't even touch inverse ETFs because they are notoriously hard to value and offer little to no benefits as investments.

Florida is notorious for foreclosure scams and modification scams.I was wondering, however, if any one has had any experience with approaching a distressed homeowner with the following proposal: If they don't want to do a shortsale, and they have little to no equity in the property, I would be willing to take over the deed and the mortgage.

This industry is notoriously old-fashioned, so you'll find that things move slow in some areas.

One around the corner from me, 800k homes... was a notorious foundation nightmare in a neighborhood full of them... depending on who you asked.... it was 10k or 200k to fix. 

They are notoriously hard to work with. 

You likely have a prescriptive easement for it since its been am open and notorious use for 30 years.

will also depend partly on which market, western Washington for the example has notoriously bad soils which would require far more scrutiny than somewhere like Colorado for example.

As for title companies and their underwriting requirements, a lot of it has to do with the fact that Pennsylvania tax sale law is notoriously anti-buyer.

@Derek Gendig - US banks are notoriously difficult on this issue due to regulations requiring that you appear in person to open the account.