I guess you can say the ROI is infinity.  

I think that a financial background or just a degree in finance would help the most. 

It should be used to infinity though.  

Had an $80,000 house in Riverside the other day with $60,000 in fines - hope yours is not the same.Also - even if not yet "liened" or "fined" the code violations can still be extraordinary or things you do not already have included in your repair numbers.

I have an MBA in Finance and have read over 20 books on Real Estate Investing and I can tell you the BiggerPockets books (The Book on Rental Property Investing and The Book on Managing Rental Properties) are two of the best books out there.

Options I am considering:-Go back to school and get a stronger, more technical/practical BA in finance/business analytics.

Account Closed, there are some status-symbol suburbs (think Beverly Hills CA), where it's expected that a pool is standard, and then it just becomes a competition between buyers as to whether a rooftop pool, or indoor heated pool, or cliffhanger pool makes the bigger status statement.

My background:  Work a full time job in Finance and have excess capital which I'd like to invest through real estate.

If I buy a lien for approximately $1,000.00 and foreclose on it for about $3,000 is it safe to assume I will pay another $2,000 in back taxes (about two years) and another $1,000.00 in fines?

Thanks for the replies everybody.We are in final stages.Title company called and is trying to schedule when we can get together and sign final documents.It sounds like any overpayment would come back to me, which is fine.It just seemed shady.