The EASY way to operate is to close and then resell.

They could likely buy it back at similar cost and resell it to someone in their buyer's list for higher.

From first contact with the seller of the lots to closing out your purchase to reselling the lots.So if you made 200 per lot at 57 lots that is 11,400 minus your other costs.Let's say you cleared 9,000.Say it took 4 months start to finish. 2,250 per month and if you had 10 hours in the deal that is 225 per hour which isn't bad.I always look at the time invested for the return.

Yes, it has occurred to me that the  bank may be "fabricating" a  phony title problem so they can try to resell it for a higher price.

First, I'm assuming this thread is a joke...If not, here are some thoughts:-  In San Jose, you can only build under an owner/builder permit if you don't plan to resell the property or if you plan to hire out all the work to licensed contractors (you're just GC'ing the job). 

An individual that buys and resells in a short period of time is not investing but dealing, if the activity level is high and most profits come from the activity of buying and selling, that is an active roll that becomes a business venture, you're a dealer not an investor. 

There is NOTHING that prevents you from reselling a HUD property, unless of course you bid during the OO period, but the OP made it clear he didn't.

I don't see a lot of value add for you to buy and rehab and then resell basically turn key.the profits when you do the Turn key come when you can sell to out of area folks who cannot do this on their own and will pay a premium for your service. but you MUST have PM set up and ready to go for them so on and so forth.Now one thing you might consider is creating a type of JV deal with local professionals that are looking for passive cash flow you set up a company and you bring them in as cash partners you do all the work take an equity ownership.. charge an up front fee for facilitation then either you manage the manager or since your an owner and if you love dealing with tenants you manage them for a fee. 

Folks paying all cash for a home that is eons away from ever being finance-able NEED that great uber killer deal because of the opportunity cost of being out that much capital until they re-sell the house or otherwise get it generating income, whereas you are likely in a position to be able to regain access to it relatively quickly (if you so desire).

It's a project to buy and re-sell.