Up until the trustee sale (foreclosure auction), the home is still owned and fully controlled by the home owner.I’m assuming you’re going to be looking at off-market properties (since loan status isn’t something they advertise on the MLS so you likely wouldn’t even know if it was in default if it’s a listed property).So, in that case, you’d just negotiate a purchase agreement with the home owner and then take the contract to your local escrow/title company to open escrow. 

You can start real estate investing, reading resources, familiarizing yourself with the Albany, GA market, setting short-term and long-term goals, preparing financially, building a team, conducting property searches, conducting due diligence, making an offer, managing property, and joining local groups.

If you don't have sponsorship, by definition you don't have a deal - full stop. in some aspects, but but I'd argue in development you have to find land and partners at the same time. you have to have a competitive advantage and local knowledge. may not apply and probably different sectors. we break development up into multiple raises like Series A, Series B, etc in venture debt and discount equity tranches based on what stage the investor comes in for higher returns it's earlier like when we are investing in engineering services etc we recapitalize and spend our money with an equity sale and recapitalization. structured finance is so interesting 

While a single stall garage might be only a ~10k adjustment on an appraisal depending on your local market, the lack of garage can kill market value which is harder to predict.

Because wholesale deals are not something advocated by your local Realtor assn.

Local planning department.

It's a great way to become more knowledgeable on your local investors and create your team while you're getting started.

This is a horrendous idea for a young person who knows nothing about landlording and pre-supposes you can get a property first.Spend the last time in college learning and going to local meetups.

Work with the city and local brokers to identify the exact product type to meet the housing needs of the area.

Go to a local convenience store, see what kind of people live there.