Sure, they play pot odds and ensure they only take on good cases.So... it depends on your W-2 hours spent... and your tolerance for pain (risk).

The appreciation play is just hard to come by in the SW part of AR. 

Playing with some DTI calculators I’ll be hovering around 50%.

For me, if I had $1M I would go the appreciation play and look to buy a property in an A area that will appreciate over the next decade.

We do not suspect foul play because apparently that tenant's relatives have reported to the remaining tenants that the MIA tenant has moved in with another relative (but did not give that MIA tenant's new contact information). 

Is this playing with fire? 

I work / live / play in the PHX metro area, so you've picked a great market I'm very familiar with. 

But most clients think that we handle things in 15 minutes when in reality a boundryline agreement with a neighbor may cost, 24 miles, 3 trips at 30 minutes each, a bottle of Makers Mark, playing catch with the neighbors BermesHuskLabraSpaniel and a 15 minute consult with the clients attorney who has the form.

You may need to play around with how you word your request, so you won't get charged for an excessive amount of pages. 

@Wayne Brooks this is a very old one.. there was a guy in 'Colorado who had a huge internet presence and had the same deal... he got indicted and put out of business maybe someone will recall his name... when he was going big.. you would see 5 to 10 craigs list ads all saying the same thing we buy notes.. then you talk to the individual and they knew nothing about the business and read from a script..