At BP, you can't go wrong.

Be very careful about checkbook control as making a single wrong step can blow up your IRA, make it taxable.

But I will say, whatever could go wrong, did go wrong on this property.  

There's no wrong time to buy, just wrong price.  

That being said, there is a lot of competition at the auctions these days and the chance of an "amazing deal" not being recognized and bid on (and probably bid way up) is slim to none in my experience.If you're interested in auctions though, there's nothing wrong with going to watch and see how it works so you'll be more prepared when you have the money to be an actual bidder. 

I'm not real familiar with the process... correct me if I'm wrong here.  

What I have learned so far: its REALLY hard to find reliable labor, working on houses yourself is really exhausting and something always goes wrong when you think it will be a simple fix!

That being said, there's nothing wrong with putting a big sign in the yard that gives some basic information on the home and flip and let's people know it will be coming on the market soon, and getting the word out through other avenues. 

I'm sorry if this post is in the wrong forum, but I have a question. 

While I don't know your carrying and closing costs, that appears to be a return of $28K.  28K return on 37K invested is ROI of 75.6%.So unless I got it totally wrong and there were other expenses I didn't account for, a big WOO HOO!