My company is a buyer and private lender on lower $ ARV SFH properties throughout the U.S. 

The offers I want to put in are about $15k - $25k lower than the asking price.

It is hard to find landlords that are willing to use the program due to lower rent payments.

Generally you get about 1% lower interest rates and lower down payments (20% vs 25 - 35%) on conventional (Freddie/Fannie) Owner Occupied mortgages as well.

At the very least, the local title company should be helpful, I would think.I would expect you'd need to involve some type of transactional funding so you can do two transactions: foreclosure to you (auction sale), then sale to end buyer.

I believe their fees are a little lower, but we are still in the early stages so, I can't recommend them yet.

But for #2, does the lender re-appraise and lower the amount you can borrow? 

If it is a short sale the transaction would need to be arms length.

I'm looking to purchase a small apt with hard money and I'm thinking of how to refinance the loan through conventional banks for a lower rate with little income on tax forms.  

Julie I get it I have owned 3 sizeable HML companies in my day.. and done well over 2,500 transaction as the owner principal of the company.. and I have done them every which way.from no money.. to needing money.. to equity share etc etc.. end of the day its the character and capacity of the flipper that is paramount.tough thing right now for most is finding deals that meet the LTC ratios that make 100% funding even remotely safe. however you are new to BP I see and generally speaking this is a beginners site..