I would consult your attorney before using some of the above mentioned methods as here in CA, you could easily get sued for some of those.Asking with your sob story is step 1.

Goals and story: My friend is a foreign national, immigration status has been approved but still waiting on green card, has social security and runs a lucrative business that mostly deals in cash.

Both the parking and garages or rare in the area It was given to us from my wife’s ex in laws (long story there ) but has a mortgage of about 145K and a mass health lien is 25K.

There are some pretty sizable duplex projects I've seen done and purchased on market where they add a third story and even a third unit on that third story and convert them to condos...that kind of rehab is going to be $200K easy, but the value you're adding is substantial...thats a much different acquisitions strategy than if you are trying to get in and out of a rehab for $30K.But all in all I'd say off-market will always be "better deals" but certainly there are still deals to be had on Market if you understand your strategy well and know what your buy box looks like to execute that strategy.  

I've seen stories online of people complaining how they were approved for very little line of credit.

Would love to hear some stories and numbers as examples. 

@Jim Kittridge, awesome story...how did you identify landloards with 5+ properties? 

And the tenants we ended up going with responded really well to my story (like, "Oh, great!

Long story short, I won’t pursue any legal action.

Sure there are stories of investors wholsaling deals on their third door knock or phone call, but the reality is those a very rare.