I've got an old SF teammate who just bought a house in Cameron last year and in typical Army fashion is PCS'ing back to Ft Campbell this summer. 

If during one of their flips the market turns on them, they will fix and sell for 80-90 cents on the dollar (again, in under 90 days) like they did the last downturn and still make money.As a buy and hold operator working in this fashion, you get the tax benefits that these guys don't get but you have to deal with tenants and you still have multiple exit strategies to mitigate market and other risks  ... you could wholesale it for profit, you could fix and flip it for profit, you could hold it as a rental for profit (and being in at 70 cents on the dollar will certainly help your cash flow), and sell or cash out refinance at any point in time in the future, and you can change your mind at any point in time if you want or need to.

call title or escrow company they should have a direct feed on this .. or if you one of those old fashion states that is still stuck in the last century     and if the county website is down you may have to go to the tax collectors office and pull it up there.

I get that leverage can be a beautiful thing in REI, and call me old-fashioned, but I'm just not a fan of debt.

Many of these people need the money from selling their house in a more rapid fashion and probably don't have money to do any upgrades.

If your realistic ceiling on this was 400, that's 15k for you and the flipper to split in some fashion. 

I have done the former but sprayed paint instead of stain for the last step (painted cabinets are back in fashion).

Yes, we look at the value derived from the income approach but we still loan on the old fashioned appraised/as-is value.Inbox me with a bit more info and I'll tell you exactly why you are being dismissed.Good luck!

also, a good old fashioned phone call to the precinct may be informative.one last thought, if you haven't already, it may help to setup keyword alerts for something like flips and grand rapids, so you can connect with those in your market who are active in that strategy.  

The service is there, if the investor choose to take advantage, if not, do it the old fashion way and do everything yourself.  :-)