She ended the call screaming "I'm calling the cops"!!

., they all scream "I'm not really sure about this!"

Get an 80% loan so you have money for the rehab, or even put in a low bid and see what happens, either you get a screaming deal, or you lose the bid. 

Every single comment on this thread is screaming TurnKey.  

And, if it is the screaming deal that you think it is, you can do a cash out refinance on it with a private lender / local bank almost immediately or with a Fannie Mae backed loan after 6 months.

Multifamilies / commercial have higher interest rates so one can't compare it to your buddy's screaming hot deal for his home.You could pay points to lessen the interest (1 point = 1% of the loan), but the break even I was hearing for my situation was a 5 - 7 year time horizon. 

So I emailed everyone within the 2 companies and said that if I don't hear from anyone within 24 hours, I'm going to start screaming from the rooftops! 

Wal mart has old ladies at the front not because they are going to scream the loudest when you steal, but when they greet everyone, theft goes down.

I'd tell him that you are looking to buy, but are planning on making lots of aggressive offers on inexpensive properties in an effort to learn and get screaming deals.

This assumes the owner hasn't used their house as an ATM machine.If driving for dollars isn't appealing (or isn't going to work with 4 screaming kids in the back seat) then you might mail owners of properties (with the requisite amount of equity) that are currently in the process of evicting a tenant.