The whole place is trashed and will take some time and SE to just clean up.

Then you submit your offer to the bank with an addendum that says something to the effect of "upon approval of inspection of addition by licensed contractor, or county authority".

SIOR is the most exclusive designation (it's invitation only and heavily performance and experience qualified, whereas CCIM is effectively entirely education based).

Negotiating skills are something we all possess, but the onus is on negotiating effectively so that neither you nor your buyer looses.

The areas are clean, not blighted like most of Motor City, and most of the renters are upper middle class engineers, cops and teachers.

If it were me, I would focus on clean deeds prior to courthouse sales where I could negoitate with current owners.

Coordination of cleaning/repairs between quick turnarounds may be problematic.

Sell the houses and make a clean break.No idea how to pull off the pre-selling.Jon

Not sure how constitutional it would be to outlaw two perfectly legal business contracts, a lease and an option, just because both were between the same parties.But remember this is the same legislature who tried to put through the "dirty cheerleading" bill and did pass the legislation to put in effect the largest steroid testing operation in the world!

There are thousands upon thousands of agent blogs that are active and I believe that an effective way to garner business is through trust (achieved through using social media) and personalization of your brand.