I buy the timber log it make money.. we all win .. and if it is really good I get to broker the sale of the multi   now this is a little difficult for a lot of timber land owners to grasp as they are usually not versed in real estate and tax.. and many times they simply do not believe it can be done... because their local book keeping service person has never heard of it.   

And certainly if they've ever rented it that would be a huge bonus. 

Not very many people will be stuck in a Win-Win situation as yourself. 

Persist and you will win!!!

You keep bidding until the auction is over the highest bid wins just like eBay

Ask questions to figure out his needs and try to give it to him in a very win-win way.

They haven't followed up.Would a lease option be a good win-win solution?

Finally, if you are the winning bidder, as I have stated many times here, when they send you the contract you fill in that you are having your local Attorney/settlement company do the settlement and the title search (as opposed to Hubzu).

The rest of that money is bonus profit because you used good conservative estimates when you did your initial analysis.

Personally, I look for sustainable cash flow first and consider property appreciation as a bonus, but I do know in certain markets that investors will hold for appreciation, which is a bit risky for me.