That is one excessively high wholesale fee. 

Turn-key us a very lose term.

Are you willing to lose it all for a 20% return or take lower risk for an 8-12% return (but always have risk of losing it all). 

Also if your stock portfolio after taxes is netting you more than 5% you are going into a losing scenario as you are taking money that is earning more and investing it in something earning less.

So when the foreclosure is attempted they end up getting cancelled and it creates the Zombie foreclosure.What would be interesting is finding a way to easily locate a list of zombie foreclosures.John I had my first one as well. got contacted and owner said bank just mailed the deed.. saying they delayed foreclosure to long.. the seller was about to lose it in 48 hours at tax sale  so I cured that.. and then did a JV with him taxs were 20 some grand.. 

you will most likely just lose money.to make this work, you'd have to buy something distressed, rehab it, and then refinance so all the short-term funds - HELOC, c/c transfer, etc. - were paid back. 

If the appraisal falls short, I risk losing the deal and my $1,600 upfront cost.Any advice on navigating this would be much appreciated.

For me personally (and from what I've heard from clients), an agent should NOT be afraid to lose a deal, especially if it's in your clients best interest. 

sounds completely legal, maybe my friend is crazy and he wants to lose $900,000 There is transfer tax and property tax.

BRRRR you can make more money if it goes good, but you can lose more if it doesn't.