I’ve done my fair share of speculating so I see the angle.

And if you take the deed before you negotiate a discount with the lender for the UPB, can't you put yourself in "squirm worthy" amounts of liability, speculating and hoping that there is a discount?

Who woulda thunk we'd have such an insane run up immediately following a massive recession caused by excessive real estate speculation???

I once owned an international gold fund based on a speculation of a falling U.S. dollar. 

I am curious, where are you getting your speculative data from?

I've used list source and then bought into the Kent clothier vacant property search software.Mostly all of my time has been speculative, trying to find a niche and a proper market for my time, abilities and goals.I'll let you know when something works :)

:@Seth Borman“Zoning was largely created to assist speculators in profiting from zone changes”Are you aware of substantial evidence to back up this claim?

Now, this is all speculation and best to go to the source.

The seller is lquidating to retire, I really am not sure what he wants and that why I was reaching out you all to speculate. ...I know he wants to delay taxes for sure. 

This is purely speculative, but I imagine to generate a reliable pipeline of leads in a market like Austin using only a generic mailer, the amount of mail one would need to send is likely on several orders of magnitude greater than 500.