No one brings physical cash (fiat money) to a closing unless they have time to sit around counting it.Only time you need a money belt is at auctions.

I'm investing in Missouri, he lives  in Maryville, nearby where I invest.I feel we both have similar interests, yet bring different skill sets and attributes to the table. 

you are only allowed to credit bid what your owed and expenses.. if you paid the tax's then yes you can add them if they are unpaid then no U cant.. if you want to own the property and continue to bid above your credit bid your just like any other investor and you can bring your cash to the sale ( cashiers check) and bid as high as you want.. but keep in mind any overage over what your credit bid is.. goes to the next creditor or to the owner. and if you don't pay the first off your taking title sub too the first and will need to deal with it.. in many cases like this is can be a situation were you simply buy out the first NOW.. and your second goes into first position and your second because you advanced the 30k becomes 105k credit bid.. and then anything bid above goes to the owner or next in line.your trustee that you hire to prosecute the foreclosure will walk you through all this.. 

Is he going to bring all of his tools and equipment with him?

What is bringing you to Albuquerque?

Honestly i have no clue which angle he was ultimately trying to go at, but it sounded like he works with a lot of investors who own real estate that produce more deductions than they have in income to claim on taxes, the point he kept repeating was that you can calculate how much income on a property could maximize the usage of all your deductions, then either pay down to this point and maintain it, or refinance the property in a shorter mortgage to gain income and bring the level back up to this level every so many year or after paying it off. 

The appraiser reached out to see if there’s anything we can do to strike a deal so they can bring their two families closer.

For example, did you establish your bring mainly website, social media presence, order business cards, virtual phone numbers etc or did you just jump out there? 

Ask yourself, what is your friend bringing to the party to compliment what you bring?

Do you read every detail of  terms and conditions on a website?