I'm assuming that they are both trying to do you a bit of a favor by selling you property with instant equity -- I would try to work some creative financing with them (or other relatives) - I think your chances of going through a conventional lender (at any interest rate) will be extremely slim -- but your best bet is to just start asking around your local lenders and find out.

Most if not all work do not need permits. profit margin will probably be slim but what you learn and having this experience on your resume is worth 100x more and can leverage that to get and fund your next flip.

the bank does not have a legal right to sell it to you till after the confirmation of sale, you could work out with them a deal prior related to a bid amount though, but someone else could bid. best would be contact the owner and see if they will delay the sale to get a deal done prior to sale, otherwise buy it at sale, or if no one buys at sale you would have to wait till its REO  if no one bids at sale there is a slim chance the bank will sell their bid to you, it not common but does happen once an a while, you would need to go through the bank attorney generally for that, unless you have the right bank contact. good luck. 

@Richard XiongYour margin is very slim.

Thanks John, I am interested in multi family but they seem to be slim pickins around here. 

Sure you could be the exception but the chances of that are pretty slim.

To add to what others have posted, Texas' robust real estate market means that a very small % of homes have underwater mortgages, which means slim pickings for short sales.

Given the demand in an area like West Hollywood, the chances that someone will take pennies on the dollar is slim.

If the location is habitable by humans, then I'm open to invest.My second filter is that I personally need to be able to visit.That means zero Muslim countries because they don't accept Jews, especially Jews who have an Israeli stamp on their passport.The third filter would be that it must be in an area that I can conduct reasonable amounts of research on from my computer, so if there are no English resources for me to research, then the odds of buying are slim to none.I have properties on both coasts of the US, but nothing international yet.

Keep in mind though, the odds of you being the first call for any of them are pretty slim.