For the last few years for me, he's been great with handling my SchE and SchC income.

If you can find a partner with the capital and/or lack of time, you can become that go to person on the team to make sure you are making solid decisions on the buy side, especially if your partners are out of state. 

Next to 0 unless it is coming from a personal contact or a HELOC or something like that. 

We run in-person meetups in Northern New Jersey on the first WED of every month, but in July it's the second WED in Morristown.

I personally won't be doing them here in MD, but some people specialize in acquiring those types of properties and I would strongly suggest you to attend local meet ups and try to speak with someone who had done it successfully and never got burned.

If you are thinking of creating a secondary market of some sort, you'd be the third person in the last 5 years that I've talked to and answered this exact question. 

see link http://www.dupageco.org/Recorder/3392/You can search personally or online.

I have personally been raked over the coals on some south side properties with squatters because I wasn't prepared for the time it would take to stabalize the building.

Do I just simply say, "I want to buy your house if interested" and keep it general or make it more personalized, "foreclosures are tough, I would like to help." 

@George Loveless if you'll be buying from Utah and hiring a local professional management company for your Ohio properties, I'd suggest spending a lot of your time looking for good managers and letting them tell you how evictions are handled.