Well as for myself I would say a good month or two of straight practice and I can go Pro.

That make more sense if you entity was, say, a retail business and you were renting a store front.

I have heard of people sometimes trashing the homes before they move out, so I was thinking if talks with the current owner go well I could try to make some sort of deal with them that if the property was left in the same shape I saw it at then I could offer them some money say a couple of hundred bucks , assuming I win the auction.

The basic formula is still the same wether you are talking about a single family home or an apartmetnt building when looking at rentals.There is a property analysis tool avalible on the biggerpockets.com home page. http://www.biggerpockets.com/recritic.htmlWhat exacly are you looking for when you say a formulas for land and purchacing a home?

If you were to watch the active listings on the mls for say a year and that's all you did, you'll probably come out with a few deals.

Some franchisees are huge companies with 50+ franchises, a 30+ year history and excellent credit and thus are much less risky than say a person who just bought his one and only Taco Bell/Pizza Hut/Hardees/etc franchise.

When you say "a large earnest money deposit" how much do you mean?

I would see if there was a way that say a 25k second may take 2k....

Can I buy it and and pay her for it out of... say a HELOC?

I would say a good real estate attorney needs to get involved with this one...