Had you put the same money in a general Dow index fund, you'd be looking at about 80-90% return over the same period, with zero work involved.

If you are in your current position with cash AND have plenty of monthly savings, I'd think that you are in pretty good shape and you are entering the territory where the costs of failure to act may outweigh the risks of not being better capitalized..

@Mark Davis  Each time there is a transaction with a loan involved the lender will require a new, updated title search and a lender's title policy.  

@Dani U. check out some of the online payment options here as some of these can block partial payments:https://www.biggerpockets.com/rei/pay-rent-online-...Let me know if you have any questions since I am involved with the payment industry, as mentioned, so I am obviously biased toward an online option.  

The 2% rule says $2000/month.Also keep in mind that there are costs involved in holding your property that exceed just a loss of value.

We learned about it from a group we got involved with through a local Meetup.com real estate investor club.

My current thoughts are:I really want to flip houses and would love to get involved in that.I've wanted to buy my first house for years now but knew I wouldn't get a mortgage loan (because of spotty work history through college).

I even got involved in a mentor course for commercial real estate.

The above is the sense I get from looking at the court dockets and deals I have otherwise been involved in. 

But the question here is how much risk do I have to buy a property on Auction?