William,  I think the first thing you should do is review the market supply and demand information. 

I have contacted PBOT and I am following their list of demands to the letter.

There are many things to consider to make a great remark like the location, its physical condition,  the demand in that area, and the first impression. 

While I'm not an attorney, nor play one on TV and this is not legal advise.

Interesting comparison.I agree with you that RE can be much better than stocks.Let's also play devils advocate -We just picked up FB during said price drop and made 12% in 7 days.You could say "why would anyone buy RE when you can make huge returns like that in a matter of days!

Not many cities can support unlimited garbage pickup - effectively on demand dumpster service - so I don't find this unfair. 

I have put ~ $20k to rehab 3 units which are now re-rented for a May 1 move in date (rented them all out in 1 day, no shortage of demand).

I would imagine many factors could come into play, but is there some general time frame I can base expectations?

@Timothy VanWingerden how did this play out?

If this is a foreclosure sale then all participating bidders must play by the same rules... competitive bidding.