I found someone online that had posted a section of the "mortgage regulations" where it stated you no longer have to be a family member.

So the answer to the original question from the concensus is that your home can be an "investment" leaving out "the why you buy aspect" and only considering the appreciation value over a length of time to build equity and choice of area makes a big difference between a "good investment" and a "bad one".

Plus, all these online gurus keep making it out to sound like if I don't buy their programs, I won't do it right!

If they don't have a lender of choice we can recommend but we can't dictate.

However the choice of properties is limited :( Another option is FHA loans, but those are for owner-occupied properties only, and there is a limit of one FHA per person usually.

You should be able to look at the loacal MLS on line, the REOs are listed and will show up there.The ONLY WAY you get to a PRE-FORECLOSURE is by working with the homeowner, and the HO and the lender, NEVER through the lender alone, the lender has no say in a deal unless it is a short sale and then, basically only to the extent of an acceptable amount paid to the loan, with conditions.And anyone who tells you that you don't need to understand your market area, just sit there and buy and I'll do the work, is someone, IMO, you should not just walk away from, but run from!

Just locate your local assessors office (most are online now), and you should be able to lookup the owner of properties by their address.

And at the time I was in Houston so there was plenty of other inventory.Anyway of the 24 that had originally been on line, 7 had sold pre-auction.

Well, I'm in school right now, and I've been busy trying to make money online with websites.

I have a link that has many many many on-line recordes and accesors.