The more they bid up properties the lower the "cap rate" goes (i.e. you can observe this just by doing the math on the formula NOI/value).

@David Krulac From my own observation, it has been more difficult to find flips in the past year or so.This is why investors need to have more than one arrow in their quiver, and be ready to change strategies as markets change.  

I would definitely enjoy learning about and observing the process and making sure everything is on budget.

Numbers look pretty good to me.Here are a number of observations/questions.First, most of your estimates look pretty reasonable to me.

@Andrew JohnsonFantastic observations there.

Just my observation.  

.:...The thing is MERS never did that many in the first place, and they stopped doing so entirely over a year ago.And just because MERS is somewhere in the chain of title doesn't mean anything....I will say that this seems true to me as well, from my observations of recording activity on sheriff sale properties in my area that involved MERS.

The houses the are building however are not Buffington Signature homes and actually based on my observation a slightly less quality style of home the buffington offers.

In observing their behavior when they gave me the deposit I became a little concerned about their ability to pay.

Basically, what you are saying is that "hey, I think I want to buy this property to flip, but I don't know what it will cost me nor will I know what it's worth until I see your appraisal" When they see that you can't do your due dilligence, they may not want to look closely at your offer...just an observation from experience.