You're a "private lender" when you loan to someone you have had past dealings with, or they are approaching you based on a personal relationship, you make a loan to your neighbor or cousin. 

I am thinking of approaching the caretakers of the property now to try and wholesale it, flip it, or hold them as rentals if I can get them at the right price.

So, if you have no issue with paying higher interest rates, or has the ability to loan to your own LLC to purchase the properties, then LLCs or Series LLCs is the way to go.For now, I go with the 2nd best approach, which is to cover myself with Landlord and Umbrella policies. 

The homeowner approached the court to sell it because he was done with the entire process, so they ordered it to be auctioned.

This will help you decide how to approach the investing side.

Hi Nicholas, Just want to thank you for starting this thread because I also am a newbie and I'm thinking along the same lines as you are as to my approach to getting into REI.I'm very pleased to see the incredible amount of response you've gotten on this forum and am encouraged by the other members here.I am curious and would like to ask the others if there is a REI club in the Tampa Bay area?

Here are some of the key stats:Purchase Price: $2.8MUnits: 100Unit Mix:50 3bed/2bath's @ $580/month50 2bed/2's @ $425/monthFinancing Approach:80% Bank20% 10% down payment10% seller financing @5% with a 5 year balloonConservative Annual Financials Financials:-15% vacancy-Rent potential: $618,000-Property Taxes: $30,000-Insurance: $21,000-Maintenance / Repairs: $60,000-Water / Utilities: $68,000-Advertising: $4,500-Property Management: $52,530 (management fee and employee salaries)-Garbage and Recycling: $15,000-Landscaping / Pest Control: $18,000-Security: $5,000In summary:-$525,300 gross income-$273,030 total expenses-$177,396 (5%) annual mortgageoFirst 5 years: Seller financing repayment on 10% of purchase price @ 5% interest rateOpportunities:-Sub metered, but water is covered by current owner (~$55k)-Increase rent on 2/2's to $485We would love to hear your thoughts on the good, the bad, and the things we haven't considered or simply answer any questions that you have.

I suppose the smart approach is to shut-up & get on with completing the mod-package asap so as to get the process started.

I would approach it as a math problem:1).

@Alec Saenz,Check the local government tax assesor's website to see if you can find out more information about the property, maybe even the owner's name.If you can get the owner information, you can take the approach of sending a handwritten letter asking the owner if he/she is willing to sell the house.