and you may have to contact several hundred leads just to get a deal.do you know which types of leads you will go after? 

You don't know the area, have no ability to lay eyes on it yourself and it's not easy.

This allowed us to close quickly and focus on adding value.

I will explore the refi avenue to access the equity.

Double check to see if that works.

Feel free to send me her info.  

If you are nearby, if you have ever been a pizza delivery person, maybe deliver a pizza to the wrong house that may or may not be the one being foreclosed on so atleast you can see inside a small portion. we used to just go knock on the door some folks would actually let you look around.

For people that want to close and make it pretty/official/permitted/etc once they are owners, the question is "what is the cheapest way we can get this to pass an appraisal without the appraiser calling for a licensed/bonded/professional/whatever to fix things prior to closing?"

This 1925 bungalow was a true challenge, needing a complete rehab from top to bottom.

Hi Shannon, welcome to BP!