For anyone who may end up reading this, as a follow up, (1) auction.com ended up not requiring the full $2500 deposit, since my purchase was less than the deposit requirement. (2) It took about 2 months to get the deed, because CHASE had a pre-foreclosure on it at the time of the auction, and so they formally foreclosed and then eventually got the deed, which they then eventually signed over to me. 

Eventually, replacement is a necessity though.

I started out after college owning my own business but eventually got into social work which doesn’t pay particularly well but have still managed to obtain 7 properties with 25 doors in the past 4 years.

The neighbor has 30 days to do something, and then another 30 days to do something else, and so on....eventually he will get $750 per day fines and a lien, but when?

Does he have to report the income he received this past year and declare it a rental event though he would like to move back in eventually?

If you have a money partner, private lender or hard money lender, you need an Escape Plan for their money (eventually) but it doesn't prevent you from buying another rental because you can get another money partner, private lender or hard money lender. 

The hope would be that I would repeat this many times of course with multiple investors and eventually use property management when it becomes too much to handle effectively.  

I manage an asphalt maintenance company during the day but would like to build a rental portfolio and eventually get into flipping full time.

It will be my primary residence for the next couple of years but will eventually turn into a rental (House hacking if I can buy a multi-family unit). 

Something will eventually go wrong (furnace out, tenant vacancy, etc) that will need cash reserves.