Purchase price: $125,000 Cash invested: $120,000 First try at turning a single family home into a duplex while going through the permit process for the first time.

It’s their full time livelihood to make transactions happen.  

He can spend the next few years-ish getting a finance degree through an online school while working part time, but he just got offered a full time position helping with sales for a local wholesale real estate company. 

Your time is best spent producing the revenue that allows you to invest in the first place.That includes using local agents you meet and feel are a good fit for you, property managers, possibly buying completed properties like the one you posted here, and outsourcing as much of the process as you can as you get started. 

You'll always have the luddite stragglers but it's the response time that matters, not the avenue. 

Quote from @Joy Daniels: As a short-term property manager I've seen how this industry changes so often—new guest trends, tech tools, and regulations seem to pop up all the time.

If you don't have the time to manage the property then you would probably want a company to do that for you.

I am unsure how you think this can recover a negative equity position any time soon.  

While I am not afraid to invest my own time and money to renovate a property. 

@Steve Babiak is absolutely right.I've said it many times buying at tax sales is the most hazardous way to buy real estate.