I'm also self-employed in my sales job so I'll have some difficulty with qualifications.

Realtors on both end want to see some skin in the game, thus earnest money deposit.

If the bank feels that neither party (builder or investor) has enough skin in the game, they will tend to require that at least one party puts down cash.

I am here in So Cal also and have stayed away from investing in other areas because of the difficulty of managing and due diligance from afar.

It happens all the time in my area of Panama City Florida.Many private property owners will do this but you may have difficulty with property management companies.

If a Bank is having difficulty evicting him, whatmakes you think that you will do better?

I did auto loans in the Chicago area for several tears and typically, you would not want to refinance a car, its a bad idea, and even then, having a bank to do it is another difficulty altogether.

Where I typically search I can find the deals and sellers but buyers have been the difficulty.

You need to have want is commonly called “skin in the game” which means a combination of cash, equity, out-picket expenses already spent on the project, joint venture partner, cross collateral-able property etc typically equaling 20% of the loan size lent.

The reason I am having difficulty is more or less what Ryan Webber said in his last paragraph regarding "tying" instead of "buying".