Sidenote: I occasionally build custom barrel saunas for my employer based out of Bend.

I think what U will find is your not the only one with this idea.. someone in default will over the course of their foreclosure get HAMMERED with direct mailthe bank will be talking to them sending them letters pretty much weekly. people like you will be drilling them.. so competition is fierce.. at least it used to be in our market before the laws changed.. but not everyone knows the laws or follows them.Bottom line though this I know is true having bought hundreds of these.. homeowners are in massive denial.. they are not motivated until usually the 9th hour.. you can find an occasional one that will react early in the process.. but usually that reaction is to list it and sell it.. now if your in an area that has limited sale activity to homeowners  and most the transactions are to investors for rentals.. that would be a leg up.. as those areas are dominated by wholesalers..

The person who is the good debtor will get dragged down by the bad debtor / deadbeat; when this is the case, the good person's credit report will have older years showing no derogatories but the occasional ding in more recent times, showing a gradual decline that can start to accelerate as more time passes.As a few other posts have noted, finding out their past history of paying rent is your best indicator; if they had trouble paying rent to past landlords, it can be expected to happen again.Lastly, I would add that you have to have a good understanding of debt to income (DTI) and how to calculate DTI and what a bad figure for DTI would be.

I’m a relative newbie, cap rate has been one metric that I have spent a bit of time learning, partly because of the various definitions of it and the occasional misconceptions surrounding it.The formula I see all the time is Cap Rate = NOI/(Purchase or Value) which does not include leverage.

I have followed the forums occasionally while I was on a deployment.

My first call with Jerry was about a year ago but i didn't pull the trigger until later this year with him ( Even to this day i still occasionally trip over dollars to pick up pennies....).

Perhaps its worth being vacant so that you have a place to go occasionally? 

Trust me I have done plenty and still do occasionally. 

You will occasionally be pleasantly surprised.

Occasionally Redx has a number Vulcan doesn't and if I get one extra deal from it, boom paid it's way for the next 3 years.