needs to be paid for by the landlord per code.

Is he still getting paid $10,000 to hire one painter and one carpet company?

if you decide to go ahead I would suggest doing what I did I charged One year upfront and the lease was with the parents of the occupants I had theor security numbers and they were personally responsible for any damages At no limitI first went to a real estate attorney and had him write up he lease to make sure it was all legalWorked perfectly when a group of them did nearly $10,000 worth of damages Mommy and daddy paid up within days of them leaving at the end of the school year. 

Hi Shequila, your first step would be to contact a mortgage lender in your area to help you get pre-approved for a home loan.

Hey Will,I am in in N.C. but the deposit amount that auction.com requires for pre-foreclosure properties are set by the state.

The point I was trying to make above is:   It the Vendor wishes to be paid for such improvements, then s/he had better make those improvements before selling the property.  

Selling a house subject to the existing mortgage means the existing mortgage is NOT being paid off.

Given the crazy costs of rebuilding after Katrina, lots of areas could not support the costs of rebuilding (i.e. if it cost $75/ft2 to rebuild, but pre-storm values were less than on a $/ft2 basis), alot of people did not want to be upside down in there house.During Katrina, most banks gave borrows affected relief on paying their bills,  Most of mine gave me at least 6 months of no payments.  

We were able to get the land for "free" because we subdivided another property that was already paid for.  

Tenants paid on 9/1, I haven't had funds deposited into my account yet.