You're already in a great area for passive income, which puts you a step ahead of other new investors.If you have an idea already of the type of investment you're looking to get into, I'd recommend adding some progressively specific keyword alerts so you know if anyone starts talking about your holy grail of niche, market, provider, etc.

Have you tried giving them a very detailed daily scope of work and checking on the progress daily?

Thea mount you bid is how much you will pay for the house IF you foreclose on it.If you bid more than 40% of the assessed value you start to pay a "High Bid Premium" that will affect your interest rate.I think you can enter test bids not but official biddign opens on the Friday before the sale. you can change your bid up until the auction is over.

If you are serious, I would hire a structural engineer to assess it so that you know what you may be getting into.

I personally went on MD's Assessment and Taxation and found that no one has redeemed ground rent through their department. 

Creating an LLC won't do much for you as you'll still need to personally guarantee the loan and if you can't qualify, then you've made no progress. 

The comps/estimates in the area are around the same price but the tax assessment in 2016 had this at $47.6K, which makes me a little weary.

So, the Seller, who is also the Listing Agent, strongly of course agreed with my assessment, when sharing the comps above. 

And assessment doesn’t get paid.

Don't forget the asbestos assessment when you fix the ceiling, nobody has mentioned that some older popcorn ceilings were made from Asbestos.