I know that I'm a little late, but if you guys want to rehab the home, we could do some creative financing situations where they can finance some solar panels and other energy efficient items, as well as complete rehab.

And as you came to realize, you cannot offer the seller any $ on the side.Last thing I'll say is - we did a lot of short sales back on 2008-2010 and - a short sale can be a BLACK HOLE of time and energy.  

Don't let the money burn a hole in your pocket!

The mental energy that it took for us to do the bookkeeping was huge.

Sometime between the meetup and driving home my wife and I lit up with energy to learn as much about this business as possible.

I felt horrible for wasting the sellers time and energy.

Make sure you have good insulation, windows and other energy saving features if possible. 

All you bring to the table is sweat and energy, so think about ways to leverage that.  

Think grad students and people coming here for employment.If you have too much energy, you could also post at Weber State on their classified boards or even go to individual departments and talk to the secretaries about posting boards there--particularly ones with grad programs. 

Farm an area, look for properties on the internet, take your time to look as many as you have the energy and time to do.I have done some posts on creative financing, search my name for those postsThis you will find will be your best education, study BP and read, read, read......stay away from motel seminars.........