The fact of the matter is that MLS listings are nearly exhausted after teams of acquisitions agents scour through them every morning and with regards to realtors, their expertise is typically not that of an investment background.

I scour the market daily looking for deals and seldom do I find 2%. ( That said I just closed on one that will do about 3.4%!)

We are VERY early in our process, as I was informed of this whole situation about an hour ago and have been scouring the internet since just gathering all my peanuts to see what we really have here.Based on a quick zillow comp, and my knowledge of the particular area, I am definitely leaning towards the current owner being upside down to the tune of maybe 10-20K as the area has declined a bit more since the 2008 purchase.

So I have been scouring the forums for a while now putting a strategy together for fix and flips, but I now need to know, who do I talk to first; sellers or lenders?

In Alameda County, they do have a Parcel Map viewer, that will list a mailing address for a property, which you could then try to scour the internet for info.

Why not scour pintrest for "storage ideas for small homes"? 

Sounds like a great dealSeen a lot of your post while scouring BP and learned some good things.

I actually enjoy scouring the MLS / Zillow / Local Listings for the best deals.

I'm definitely reading up and will take your advice and scour the links you gave.

If you have no money at all to put into it, you're going to be limited to driving for dollars, Craigslist calling, scouring local court filings for Notices of Default and other foreclosure proceedings, and/or probate filings.