People study subject-to and think it will fit every property they look at, for example, or fix-and-flip, or buy-and-hold, or ...When you understand many strategies you can approach a property and instead of trying make it fit the strategy(-ies) you know you can determine what strategy best fits the property.

Tim's approach seems very sensible, so we may expand our search area.Are there any rules on this forum about describing specific properties?

On the rare exception, I have approached the occupants (tenant or owner) and made it a win-win by offering back for half of what they owed and lower payments...

I haven't heard of this approach from a lender requiring a surety bond - so make sure you do your due diligence.When I bought a 200+ unit deal I used a surety bond for the utility deposits, which was a great strategy and it saved me over $30k. 

I have specific plan to achieve this goal and it is not the usual approach yo see here in BP.

Another approach would have been to show up every week and bid on a few good properties up to your max.

What are the pros/cons about this approach?

and if so, how to approach it?

My second question is, 2) would it be possible for me to try to approach the bank before foreclosure if he is not giving me access to the bank (I do know which bank he is working with)?

Personally I think if you are going directly to sellers the more personal, and less corporate approach I think is best.