We all hear great advice on the podcasts but until you go through the process it is hard to know what to do. 

Hi Leo, its been years since I closed on a HUD property but you close on the property as soon as title is ready like any other property.  

MInd you, we've gotten really good at our scopes of work and we have one of our GCs go through the property with us to give us our scopes of work.

I’ve been part of the BiggerPockets community for a while, but this is my first post.

At the end of the day, whether small or large deals it always comes down to relationships.

How do I get the phone numbers of the owners of the properties?

Eric,, I think why people go for the fund model is the idea that they are spreading their money into multiple notes being held by the company.. while in theory this is great but as you noted you don't really have any security compared to being the beneficiary of the debt instrument IE debt is in your name. 

@Rey Magana look at the Mesa Del Sol area.

In the past year we've been through the ringer financially due to bad contractors, deal promises, and generally just being new to the game.

Do a search for PM's in the market area and jot down the top 6.