I suggest you use defaulted taxes as a trigger to create target lists but solicit to buy before the sale or at least become the owner of record prior to tax sale.Then you'll need to become an efficient title researcher and skip tracer.

My point is that your objective ought to be to correlate probates with triggers that create a motivated seller.

You can identify the potential risks in each step, identify possible triggers for those risks, determine how you will notice if one of them is about to move from a risk to a real issue, and pre-identify mitigation strategies. 

If you don't mind I have a few newbie questions as I approach a trigger date: What does "VA" refer to?

Also, rent to value is a bit low unless you go to rough neighborhoods.I was super interested in Indiana when I pulled the trigger on out of state investing, and I started with indianapolis.

I'm ready to pull the trigger, I just need something to come into my crosshairs.

So, I've finally pulled the trigger on a rental, and would have never thought it was going to be a triplex, but the figures work for me.What are the next steps I should take?  

I have looked at Rentobo.com but haven't'this pulled the trigger with them.

Because once you get one of these babies under contract, regardless of where you buy, you will want to pull the trigger fast.

Efficient public transit has alot to do with it; my station has 23 train departures between 8am and 9am, and the schedule looks like this:8:00 8:03 8:05 8:08 8:10 8:13 8:15 etc.Any delays off by more than a minute or so from the schedule:1) are rare; normally triggered by extreme weather like a typhoon2) trigger profuse apologies from the subway staff.Another major difference is the US approach to top-down city planning - you simply can't have a "neighborhood grocer" inside a big blob of residential zoning.