Tax liens I agree on .. but notes through a very experienced vetted Broker who does it for a living is probably one of the safer investments and easiest to do. 

A family friend of mine who is a long time real estate investor with several properties has offered to sell me one of his properties.

I told her not sure what my end game would be yet; STR or maybe sell in a few years depending how it turns out. 

I have never used an FHA 203(k) loan myself, but several years back when I used to do mortgages, I did sell a few of these to my clients. 

It's been more than a year and I have been trying to sell it.

One bullet dodged, and a lesson learned -- research more than just the tax situation before bidding.Around this time I also learned that a Tax Deed isn't really a "clear title" for selling the property, because it's very difficult to get title insurance on a tax deed. 

Once you find a note holder wanting to sell you can upload the notes to his list of note buyers.  

Books I have read:- The Book On Estimating Rehab Costs by J Scott- Land lording on AutopilotBooks I own and want to read soon:- The Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller-What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know about Cash Flow by Frank GallinelliMy question:Im lacking some knowledge as well as trying to understand the metrics investors use to keep track of different types of data both when buying and selling and also down the line for refi and PL spreadsheeting. 

You can borrow or you can sell stuff. 

When I was selling residential solar I assessed 3-6 homes a day and often saw FPE panels with charring around where a breaker had been overheating for awhile and started arcing because it failed to trip, causing the breaker to melt and the wood framing the panel was mounted on to start burning.