Anyone reading this thread should make it a point to read your state's real estate contract practice book or at minimum pull a list of all C.A.R. forms from the internet and read the title of each form and pick a few to read line by line to begin understanding the contract language. 

We no longer even look at the properties.Here is our experience.You pick out the properties of interest and drive by them. 

For my last question, the reason I'm wondering if you can compare the two is because I don't know if I should pick one over the other. 

Pick one strategy and master the due diligence side of it.Another thing to keep in mind is how much capital you have, and how many properties you want to acquire.

My thinking is this leaves me with two paths: A) Best case is I pick up the foreclosure for $1M, immediately list it for sale at $1.6M or more and hopefully sell for a > $500K pretax profit. 

1) Don't fall into analysis paralysis, theres a ton of ways to invest in Real Estate, pick one and go.2) Take action.

Hello, I have purchased 4 different asset manager lists over the past two years, but three were ineffective with outdated information and many email bounce-backs or returned mail.The best list I found was at RealEstateTargetdotcom; I did a successful snail mail and email campaign, and picked up three new banks and an account with LPS.I also cross referenced names on the list to see who was attending or speaking at various REO conferences, and made efforts to meet asset managers in person.

There are a few highly rated HipCamp hosts in our area that have 'U-Pick' farms of produce and/or petting zoo type animals, and they've added a handful of RV sites to go along with it.  

The contractor didn't want to pick them - it was a 15 mile drive (in California traffic, this would take a lot of time).

They ended up stepping over dollars to pick up dimes.