So I fully understand the importance of knowing the right pieces of the puzzle to put together.I reread what I wrote and realize that it may not have been written well.I guess what I meant to say is I'd rather find the primary source that would be happy with reasonable rates and fees, then the secondary lender who wouldn't be happy e anything less then the numbers I had stated above.I hope my original statement didn't offend any brokers as I know they do provide a very legitimate service

You can look up the court case records & piece the facts together.Not enough information to assume.

I hear there is a "new judge in town" which means that the foreclosure process on these liens is moving much more quickly than in the past.The number one piece of advice I can give you is to drive by the properties you are interested in after you do a Google Earth review and some other due diligence.

The hardest part of the entire process was waiting.Here are the numbers we used:Two units at $950 a piece, or $1,900 monthly rents.We used 40% for expenses instead of 50% based on some research involving posts like this one.Initially, our interest rate was 3.5%!

., and what the government plans for a specific piece of property can be VERY lucrative.

Another piece of advice, don't use Zillow as your end-all be-all valuation tool.

Each meeting, even the bad REIA meetings most likely has someone or some piece of information that can help you.  

I'd really appreciate any piece of advice as this would be my first time buying a property. 

Every piece of property should be in it's own Land Trust and you should have an LLC for each type of asset class you are investing (this goes to money management, which is a subject beyond this post). 

If you want to scale, managers will be a necessary piece unless you want to grow a property management business too.