Michael, that's a scary Forum Title at the beginning of a downturn.Australia, China, Canada, California, New York have already droppedand the big banks have recently laid of 100s of high paying mortgage jobs.With interest rates over 5% for most average SFH buyers, are you leveragedfixed at 3-4%?

I can't speak on behalf of Detroit, but in Atlanta, the flipping business is highly competitive.

1031 is for a business or rental, hard to imagine how raw land fits...

While technically you can do it yourself, you would never get title insurance so you could never sell or finance the property.

The seller will obviously hold the debt/note for the existing mortgage while the title gets transferred to me.

Which will bring plenty of other investors and general business to the area.

My wife and I are each contributing to the purchase and we would both like to be on title. 

@Ryan LeeThis would be a question for title and escrow and how the contract is written. 

To get top dollar for a renovated property you're going to have to clear the title as it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to find a title company that will write a policy for title insurance on a property coming from a tax sale.

It is a bit of a gamble, but personally, I always get my own bids from people I will hire and either take a credit on price or have title issue the checks directly to those contractors to get work done as soon as I close.