I'm probably going to shy away from farmington as well unless I found a screaming deal.

Everything about this screams at me to stay away.

My hope is that they will be able to find some screaming deals outside of the MLS.

See if your employer can do the work would be my best advice, they may give you a screaming deal.Good luck, let me know if you'd like to meet up for coffee and chat about all this sometime.

I knew I had entrepreneurship in my blood. I

I found a single family home nearby with overgrown grass and a winterization notice plastered all over the door and windows, this house clearly screams foreclosure.However, when I look the house up, the owner is listed as a person, that same name matching the name on the mailbox.

To me it shows no morals or ethics whatsoever.. to even think this is OK.. just gets me.Like you I built a substantial sub too portfolio over the years.. but I also had more than one called.. and we stroked 100 to 300k checks for them.. there was a group here in PDX I think they got this from rich dad or another guru that came through town they did about 30 of these long term sandwich deals. and one by one the buyers flaked.. sub prime borrowers no matter where they are what they are .. are a big default risk.by the time they got to me  14 of the 30 were not paying.. and of course in our area mortgages are in the 1000 and above range.. and they are making their 200 a month delta.. but when you have 14,000 a month negative.. hostile owners of homes that know it takes a year to boot them.. and the folks you bought the house from are screaming.. ( many of these folks the credit was fine )  it was a cluster of epic proportions.. calls to AG to DA  come to Salem for a hearing..

But the above posters are right this just screams of a "something is missing" scam. 

The re-muddled single families I've seen scream bad plumbing, bad electric, bad heating systems (usually one for the entire building) and generally high maintenance.

Now screaming and cursing can sometimes relieve some anguish/tension but look at the bright side you still got a deal on some of the properties that are over $50k closing...