Do not try to do everything yourself.Always remember to do a math analysis on your prospective properties and try to look at them before you make an offer or at least have a clause in the sales contract that allows you some time ( about 15 days to do a detailed inspection and possibly back out of the deal without a penalty that will hurt you too much.  

I am not able to get the water turned on for my own inspection so I was wanting to see if other investors would Plumbing: "water lines tested and would not hold pressure, the main line from the tank is malfunctioning and allow air to escape."

Having them there allows them to see the type of person I am, which all goes back to people knowing, liking, and trusting me. 

Secondly, even if the bank will allow a short sale, they still want the highest sale price possible and thus will demand full exposure to the market, so it will normally get listed on the MLS with an agent.So - let's say you find a short sale that's worth $175k as-is.

We had the utility between tenants and it was a bad deal for us as we had several tenants fall behind on there bills and utility company transferred into our name auto even while they tenant was living there and fell behind on there rent then they continued to stay through eviction running bills up and we was not able to shut off as we was not a utility company and land lords are not allowed to take it away here in Ohio so we got screwed and still trying to chase them from job to job attaching wages its been years.

During this stage you are allowed to register for a property that you would like to participate during its bidding cycle.

As a seller I would NEVER allow a buyer in before closing.  

The current partners will allow the building to be refinanced after the construction is done.  

This would allow us to complete the rehab using personal lines/private money and then set up traditional financing after 1 year of collecting rents.

Figure out which ones you like and go to them as your schedule allows.