@Josh Caldwell@Brian Gibbons  in theory your advice to gather all your lawyers sounds good until you have to pay for said lawyers... most folks start in wholesaling because they are very tight on funds last thing they probably can do is stroke a 5k retainer check have their team of lawyers get right on this on how to circumvent the laws.. and even if a lawyer says its OK that does not mean crud if the state says it is not.. you lose that one every time unless you have really deep pockets to fight it... you should look at those videos that the ATTORNEY did with the state regulators they talk about all the strategies you mention and none of them will stand up...

If you think otherwise, take some sounds life advice from @Jay Hinrichs posted in other threads about his recession experience even when your doing it right.I cashed my chips January 2008 in a profound stroke of luck, walked away with millions in cash, and still did not totally escape it.

My point is that painting with broad strokes what is good and bad based on zip code is difficult.  

Since we are painting with broad strokes by only having 3 buckets I'd lump tax sales and any other type of absolute or reserve auction in there with the foreclosure ones too.

One of the main reasons for this is because of the rapport you can build over the phone through things like tonaity, pauses, and stroking.

Different strokes for different folks!

And most of the folks will need 15 to 50k to bring it current and keep the sale from happening.. there is no time for a loan.. you need to be able to stroke a check. you need to know how to deal with the trustee companies you may need to send a driver with a cashiers check into the company to stop the foreclosure etc.