And another very important factor determine how much money there is available so you don't spin you wheels.  

Stop spinning your wills trying to find the deal that you can not seem to locate.

I instantly imagined myself controlling a horse on the carriage with 2 ropes.Rick seem to be connecting the dots from both perspectives of creditors and from perspective of investors who creditors typically deal with when it comes to investors paying off first position lien or second mortgage liens, and stating that there are multiple ways of transferring deal using 2 strategies ... either using strategy of finalizing transaction to go through the final stages of probate (during either of the 3 stages) or buying off the lien judgement, depending not the equity...The probate concept of pre, open and closed state all have conditions that can be favorable or non favorable in relationship to you closing on the deal and getting it under contract.To be honest I am also a bit new to probate concept and tax liens and judgements and subject to types of acquisitions.All of this real estate Mumbo jumbo makes my head to be honest spin sideways.However, the multi dimensional factors and art of the deal from the standpoint of multiple variables and it’s inner dependencies indeed makes real estate investing quiet interesting endeavor to follow.As you dive deeper and deeper into variety of strategies... you gain compounded knowledge that in reality most certainly can be amazingly beneficial to folks who are interested in wanting to outgun their completion.In fact I would not be surprised at all with Rick stating that straddle play method of controlling the deals can outgun rehabbers using the power of negotiation.However... imagined if you can intersect the dots across multiple strategies and be able to rehab it... how cool would that be?

one of these lovely people has my head spinning . .  

., although you can certainly spin it so the numbers look better, the deal is losing you money every month. 

I hear chainsaws working on my trees, my new air conditioner system working, and the ceiling fans spinning like crazy.

Just as I thought: an upselling, ongoing, money-spinning same ol' same ol'...

I am really trying to stay positive but I feel like I have been spinning my wheels for the last 3-4 mos.

SPIN selling is not a real estate investing book, rather it is a sales book.

Welcome to the community @Amanda Miklos, Im glad you took the extra step from spinning wheels to getting your first post on BP.