They were purchases off the MLS, one was a short sale and the other a regular listing that needed a lot of work.

if you see a house about to be rehabbed, chances are that investor does repetitive moves and has a regular team.go in the house and get the contractor name and contact info (just be sure the flipper is not there) and/or write down the name of the licensed guys listed on the permits. call the village & ask for their contact info or just googled it.if the permit is a GC or construction company, don't even bother - they just farm it out or have employees.

I know I use a regular sales agreement with an option period to tie up the house.

They may also opt out of allowing them appear on the RPR website once they settle, although RPR monitors public records and will list them as a public record sale soon after settlement.

I'm also a Realtor and locally my focus is with regular home buyers.

You have to make regular ( at least quarterly) and substantially level payments back to your Solo(k).

To rank organically (non-paid traffic) on Google you need to be adding quality content to your site regularly.

Kudos to the landlord for bothering to re-contact you so you have the opportunity to monitor more closely or bail.

Place has to be in good enough shape that they can get a regular mortgage and bought with a big enough discount you can get an adequate HELCO on it to do the work.  

Inspect your properties on a regular basis.