With as many people here who post the "read the site" replies the only thing they are doing is mostly speaking a foreign language to an inexperienced, new investor because the information on the site is scattered and not in any order to get a new investor from A to Z without first confusing them.

You can get an inexperienced offshore resource to do 'sap programming' for $10.00/hour - or maybe less.

We're about 3 months and 1.5 properties into this biz, and realizing just how inexperienced we are.  

If someone has much cheaper rehab costs, materials cost and they are a better negotiator, they may provide the property finished at a better cost than what a rookie could get going through an inexperienced agent.  

Most of the firms seem to be making the assumption that all new agents are young/inexperienced people, so they rightfully have cumbersome tracks they want you to follow.

Podcasts on spotify are definitely more my cup of tea, and I have already listened to a good 20+ podcasts by biggerpockets.

You might be able to just buy it (if there's some equity), do a short sale (if not), or maybe catch up the loan and do a subject to under the right circumstances (not my cup of tea, but some folks do this.)If you want to buy at auction, Denver county has sales every Thursday at 10:00 AM.  

There are so many factors with short sales.You should have gotten WRITTEN CORRESPONDENCE from the foreclosing attorney for the bank that the sale has been postponed through XXXX date.Sometimes some lenders will continue to run the foreclosure while under short sale agreement so that they do not have to start over if the deal falls out.It really sounds like you had 2 inexperienced broker/agents working on this.You shouldn't have put a dime into anything without the full written approval from the bank and the foreclosure had been stopped by the FC attorney in writing.

I'm inexperienced in doing deals from afar. 

If you're investment strategy is long term appreciation investing in less desirable areas, then you have to be able to read the tea leaves/trends and/or become part of the trend of improving an area until it becomes desirable.