Of course as a seller I might counter with, No, please send your cancellation of sale paperwork and I’ll refund your EMD.

This is the answers I needed to invest a small portion of my funds to see how it goes.

I would like to offer mine for $395k as a private sale.

The property either has to go through the tax sale process, receivership, or some other program (donation, etc.) to have the liens abated. 

I've also seen houses there in prime locations that have been for sales for years and didn't sell for one reason or another, so building a spec house would also carry it's own risk. 

Scour every home site available and even sites that are not know for home sales, but sales in general - you may be surprised.

Walk a house that is for sale.8.  

Even if you are fine with carrying the high premiums during a flip, I think this really hurts your prospects on the sale.  

Find out their goals (current and post sale), desired timeline for selling/moving, where they'd like to move to next (if owner occupied), reason(s) for not already selling to an investor or with a Realtor, Plan B if they're unable to sell within the desired timeframe.let's say they've got a property that needs work and they're interested in selling.

What if I fix & flip instead of rent, can it pull actual sales comps and group by renovated and estimate the ARV?