Thank you I will definitely be looking into doing that. 

That psychologically can be a big barrier for an investor who's used to diversifying and spreading risk -- I definitely would not do that in the stock market!

A contract would have legally obligated him to perform.

I will definitely take them into consideration. 

If no response from the tenant within their legally allowed time, file in your local l/t court. 

It IS much better to do than have it sit there in my 401k though, so I'm definitely going to give it a try

Beware they tend to give BPO's which are closer to ARV's vs As-is values (as do majority of sellers) so don't leave much room for profit after taking into account holding costs, legal, taxes, etc.  

We’d definitely be interested in any insights you have.

You've mentioned you're good at saving up quickly, which is definitely in your favor.

Your ineptitude may amplify your losses:(You're also jumping to assumptions.We've had out-of-the-county investors that we could NOT legally send funds to because they hadn't supplied us with the IRS required documents - and they didn't respond to our numerous communications to get them.Once we obtained the proper documents, we sent them their funds - by the way, we did send monthly Owner Statements, so they had the info to see what was going on with their portfolio.So, that brings up another question - what information have they been sending you and when have they been communicating?