I cannto speak for all the banks/lenders out there but that is the noraml process I see every day on my end. 

Some of the banks have auctions.I looked at property at what I call the Thailand Housing Bank GHB (think HUD or Fannie Mae).  

One person, hoping to flip contracts and find deals by driving around the neighbor or posting illegal signage isn’t going to create a business, let alone a successful business.  

So for a $500k investment you would look to raise $250-$300k and get bank money for rest but your overhead will be too high.

I am 2 conventional bank loans in and I don't mind doing it this way.

Fools investmentThere's a fire- cannot rebuild and investor loses everything; owner ruins his credit; injured tenant sues everyone; everyone broke.Lender calls the loan- everyone losesPaying down a loan does not reduce a payment, this is not a HELOC so that part is not math.There is zero equity to loan on, no one will loan on this.What would buyer have to do to convince a poor elderly person to take this risk- scare them, threaten, lie?

It shows you from beginning to end on buying/flipping/managing defaulted mortgage loans from banks.

It really depends on the scope of work and the person inspecting the work as well as the one issuing the permit.Find someone who knows the permitting system in the municipality where your project is located and have them review the scope, and the work done and see what they think it would take to pull permits after the fact.

If you do the latter, you need to screen the new person the same way you did the first person.

My opinion is while not directly correlated, when banks start losing money and increase in defaults lending tightens and large losses typically will lead to more job losses.