"One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat." - Think and Grow RichAs for mentors, I believe you are cultivating mentors by posting on biggerpockets.

Find out the root cause for the hot water heater not working.

If they couldn't pay their taxes and are now illegally occupying the property (assuming cause they have nowhere else to go) how would they ever be able to pay you back?

Most lenders I know would let you know if there is a problem before ordering the appraisal, cause they don't want to waste their time either.

I wouldn't be afraid of it either if I knew that the ground would not continue to cause problems down the road, too.

Good luck out there cause REO's can still be a fantastic option despite the fact that all due diligence is completely up to you...

Everyone got excited, Zillow was going "disrupt Real Estate," and "change the paradigm," and all the other marketing BS the techno-weenies in Silicon Valley spew about Real Estate (and every other cause celeb bandwagon they jump on trying to make a buck by automating everything - anyone remember web-based grocery deliveries?) 

Caused me and my family great misery.

Those two sites will cause problems if you are a buyer because of their slow to update systems.

Should I keep looking around or is it a lost cause?