Assuming similar levels of success/experience/etc, an escrow officer looks at 5x as many transactions as an appraiser appraises homes, who in turn appraises 5x as many homes as a lender lends on, who does 5x as many mortgages as a real estate agent sells homes.

2) has anyone driven for dollars, located absentee owners and been successful reaching out and obtaining the property from them?

Start with your local REIA, meet other investors that are having success in the same niche that you're looking to get into, and soak up their knowledge and expertise.

Have you had success with lease options?

To be successful you need a little accounting, finance, marketing, etc.

WouldLove to hear your success stories when you get a few done.  

Has anyone had any real success in being a tax overage finder.

Jose,While there are many different benchmarks to compare an investment to in order to gauge success (excluding subjective meanings of success), an easy comparison is one made against the stock market (i.e.

My father owned a very successful manufacturing business and brought home around $175k/year.

Ryan - I too had great success at the recent OK tax sales and knowing what little I do know from other Tax Deed purchases across the US, I would not attempt to quiet the title myself.