Broker, Contractor, Lender, MentorWalk properties and get a feel for the inventory & marketsDO NOT INVEST OUT OF STATE FOR YOUR FIRST - Huge component here and a recipe for disaster - especially if you dont have a trusted team out of state

Residential properties, inventory, securities, trust certificates, corporate stock, or partnership interests cannot be exchanged under Section 1031.

Contacting wholesalers and other investors who solely spend their time reaching out to homeowners in search of motivated sellers typically have an inventory of off market properties that you may be able to get for a much better deal and not pay real estate agent commissions.  

I'm born and raised here and have a solid network of potential inventory.  

It can be tricky if a town has very limited inventory, but many towns in south jersey have multis so there are options.

If the mortgage company foreclosed successfully as you state, and it went REO into their inventory, they sold the home, not the note, to an investor.

Right now, we seen the rising tide effect with low inventory and lots of capital that needs to go to work driving investors to secondary and tertiary markets that haven't seen the love in the past.    

One of the most interesting pieces of advice I ever got was to inventory everything in a property purchase that might be depreciated faster than 27.5, like appliances, carpets etc. 

Inventory is extremely tight, in fact we are the second hottest market (all of Lane County) in the country based on inventory turnover.

@Wally Klosner, market rent, by definition, should be the rate at which renters and willing and able to absorb the inventory within 60-90 days, assuming you are marketing properly.