While I was lucky enough to overcome a lot of my earlier financial mistakes to still be in a position to retire well ahead of schedule, this information will allow a younger person to cut their working days in half (or better).

If you are risk adverse real estate, (especially out of state) is not for you.

Also, approaching them with an open listing agreement to overcome their fear of losing out on money if they sold it themselves.

I think I see an opportunity but there are a lot of hurtles for me to overcome.

Thus, the "quick flips" will be eliminated.Re-sales occurring between 91 and 180 days will be eligible provided that the lender obtains an additional appraisal from an independent appraiser based on a re-sale percentage threshold established by FHA; this threshold would be relatively high so as to not adversely affect legitimate rehabilitation efforts but still deter unscrupulous sellers, lenders, and appraisers from attempting to flip properties and defraud homebuyers.

However, this issue is shortly overcome by events.As we noted earlier, the electricity wasn’t on to the property, but that had been fixed.

You can't overcome those problems, especially as someone with no experience. 

I'm struggling with Information Overload (among other problems/struggles that I'm having to overcome)

If you can't get a quit claim from the owner, you could take possession of the lot and do an adverse possession claim in 15 years. 

I was down there a few months ago and there's no question that Detroit has been overcome by an energy of rejuvenation.