Hi Michelle,It depends on the private lender you're going with some local outfits will not require appraisal as they have their internal metrics, they know the area, and may only do a drive by.

Of course, I've never done such a thing before, except for one particularly close call dealing with an outfit that had since gone bust (thank god I didn't use their services to begin investing).

I worked for one of the bigger turn key outfits( co owned) Charlotte is like most markets there are good and bad areas.

Here they have a list of free or inexpensive and legitimate resources to help the borrower:http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/hcc/fc/None of these agencies will solicit them, so you can gain trust by warning them not to work with these outfits calling them on the phone or sending them mail.We also send them to the Making Home Affordable site.Most mods fail for many reasons.  

I have been operating as a franchisee of one of those home buying outfits for the last 2 years and quite frankly I'm unable to make the business model work right now.

I would either go to work for a big commercial outfit or a resi outfit..

My only issue with using some of these other outfits that are tenant driven is that I do not then get the tenant's SSN for my records. 

On 1 hand a more local "outfit" may be more comfortable. 

At our Rental Housing Alliance meeting we just had a presentation from an outfit that uses a crane and drops it into your backyard.

I know one outfit doing well near me, and I'm not sure where the money is coming from, but the tradesmen involved are just about as local as you can get.