(D) Every land installment contract shall conform to the formalities required by law for the execution of deeds and mortgages.

You should also run it by your CPA before doing the formal filing.

The entire property has development potential and is just on the border of the war zone of town.  

It is sad when you see business places for rent that are on the border neighborhoods of million dollar homes, and they are not being rented, and have been sitting for rent for well over a year or two.  

I disagree with this one:Average people think the road to riches is paved with formal education.

What skills are most important when looking for investment properties vs. a formal residence?

Understand personal finance from a formal education side and you can see how a borrower may be effected and the analysis there is also appropriate.Dive into your state's foreclosure laws, when you see a term, like right of redemption, look it up and study that, Google it, on lawyer sites and see how such are applied in different situations.

Also research LLCs and their formalities.

Oakland County, which borders Detroit directly to the North has the highest median income in the State but the Cities in that County are vastly different.

Once they have formally accepted your bid, they will be quick to contact you.