All the while the money your friends are paying for a mortgage, go right back into your pocket for investing in the next property, and then the next, and then the next.Finally, I implore you to READ and LEARN as much as you can about R.E. investing to open yourself up to the multitude of ways to get into RE investing (house hacking, wholesaling, syndication, flipping, etc.) and you'll find something that burns a passion into your soul and you can adjust or enhance your goals as needed over time.Good luck!

I had brought 50k with me to bid and only spent 5k buying ( well not really knowing what I bought probably junk) and packed it in and went and had some BBQ and soul food   :)  In your market is the sale a little more organized and at a pace that you can identify the cert for sale with the property that is associated with it... in those counties in MS they sold oh probably 10 to 20 thousand certs in 3 days... it was a mad house..  

That's a high stress, soul sucking, mess of a renovation.

Often times because of car requirements for these services folks have to go get new cars because a 600 credit score for a car loan is still sub prime and some of those loans will eat ones soul the rates are so high.

As a matter of fact, I grew up with the male singer from Kindred and the Family Soul. 

It's my suggestion to you is to do little soul-searching.

Read Sell with Soul.

The key is to persevere through it and to learn from it.I, unfortunately, was one of those ignorant souls who bought my first couple houses for too much.

Then you need to negotiate a price that is low enough that you can make a living and still pass along a healthy profit to the investor.To me it seems like a difficult, thankless, and soul-sucking job, so I'd recommend you stick to being a realtor, but I've never done it myself, so take my advice with a grain or two of salt.To answer your specific questions, you usually need to bring the full bid amount in cash or cashier's checks (at least in my state) or your bid is forfeit.

I think of Teddy Roosevelt's quote about "those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat" every time I read your posts.