Either way, I think we're in for a wild ride!

“horse capital of the world.”

My current biggest property is an 8 unit apartment building and it is definitely a horse of a different color compared to my 2-3 unit properties.

But the range of possibility is  why everyone's been pointing you to your CPA to get specific.But from a horse shoes and hand grenades level of granularity - you can access that $500K (realizing a net of $400K after taxes. 

Seems everyone wants to pay big bucks to learn how to ride a unicorn, then go meet with others who claim to ride unicorns, you know, those like minded people......they are like minded all right.      

I ride by the house once a month to look at outside.

There is no free ride.

I have been fascinated with real estate for a minute now and it's been joyful educational ride so far.

if it's already gone to auction, it might be too late. it's a complicated process to try to get the bank to back out of that. and as the other commenter said, all owners have to be totally on board with your plan. not only are most sellers not down for creative financing, but those being foreclosed on are typically even less cooperative (i realize that makes no sense, just how it is), and divorced couples even LESS. i think you're putting the cart before the horse here in looking for a TC. for future deals, you can find a TC in pace morby's fb group. 

I have invested here since 2017 and continue to ride this market.