The slime ball should be in jail.

totally hear you, pre 2021 in knoxville was a totally different ball game. again depending on your goals and strategies, your expectations aren't unrealistic. some deals may require more of an investment to make the numbers work like one of my student rentals that was a full gut project and took nearly a year to complete yet it spits out 15% cash on cash returns annually and i purchased that late 2022. investing in general is a risky endeavor, it's all relative to ones own risk tolerance depending on their position. we try and make calculated risks and look to evaluate multiple exits before pulling the trigger, yet there is still some risk involved. maybe a reit or syndication is the way to go if you want to be in real estate yet don't want to take on the properties yourself. either way i'm happy to make some local connections. 

How do we avoid low-balling?

You can run your own comps on Zillow/redin  make sure you understand your local market and how much finishes, bed bath count effect prices, don’t lie to yourself about arv or project it to go up that’s how you end up in trouble.if you can get all those variables down, while things can still happen/go wrong you should have a good ball park of the potential profit margin, always room for error in your net profit, markets can shift, you can get hit with unexpected expenses etc. 

Had the tenant let you know after they got the January bill and the water company didn't work out a deal with them, I might pay 50%....but the tenant dropped the ball big time and I wouldn't reward that behaviour. 

Reaching out to the forums is a good way to get the ball rolling.

Purchased various sheriff auctions, short sale, and just low balling.

"low balling" doesn't necessary meet those standards.The way that realtor's generally have to work is provide the seller the true and accurate comps (market value) as well as expressing to them that you could also buy it at a discount but buy it fast, no repairs, etc (all the other stuff wholesalers say/provide).

Plenty of pool tables and most other stuff on FB marketplace. also doing air hockey, dual pop a shot (basketball), skee ball and a multi-cade.

IF you don't have the balls or finances to weather that kind of time frame, go buy some equities or govt debt.