The issue I'm running into with door knocking is that all the distressed properties I find seem to be occupied by renters, and they aren't giving me the time of day.

@Bob Asad, it is vastly easier to obtain a HELOC on an owner occupied residence than on a rental.  

The property is a REO Occupied home that we could not inspect prior to bidding and only had one photo of a really bad exterior.

Explore New Haven County's opportunities, including multi-family properties, strong rental markets, and owner-occupied financing options.

Short-term renters generally don't like to stay in Cancun because there's not much to do there and the beaches are mainly occupied by the resorts, against which it's hard to compete and there are much nicer areas in the Riviera Maya.Even though I've owned property in the Riviera Maya for many years and have landed in Cancun many times, I've never been to the city and I've never had the desire to go there.

way over my head...I'm leaving for a trip to Japan right now. 

Some states laws say for non-owner occupied property, the vendor doesn't need a written contract.That said, in the absence of a written agreement if the lien is to be based upon the reasonable value of services provided, that $9k estimate seems like a good starting point.

@Clay Hall,It is much easier to get financing on a house that you will be occupying, because of risk to the lender. 

Is it 83% physically occupied, or economically occupied?

All of these play into my bid as if it’s not 12 month seasoning and it’s owner occupied in New York my offer would be very different than if it was in Texas