The wind was grabbing its cover and I had a real fear of a launch.  

Like I said, I don't flip houses, but my fear wouldn't be the cost of the rehab, but the value of the house after everything is done.

Since we're doing condos though, my fear is I buy in cash, using hard money, or 401K, then when I try to get financing, the condo questionnaire comes back in a negative way (investor % of the units, HOA fees, HOA reserves etc), then I'm stuck with not being able to get a conventional loan on the condo.It basically just means more work up front to make sure that all of the information is sorted out ahead of time and that the condo is financable (sp).  

I feel like I am ready to take the step and get into this ,but something is holding me back, and it's not the fear of failure or not knowing what to do when I'm in it. 

Most Landlords do not operate like a business and they waive their policies and procedures out of fear or naivete.I should have listened to @Thomas S. and left you alone. 

The owner of the farm is not the most reasonable person, so I fear to cut down a tree I would have to go through a lawyer.

Any tips on how to track him down other than a basic Google search or Facebook stalking him?

This may be an unrealistic fear - I know when I was a student, I treated my apartments very well.

All foreclosures have to be posted in a local paper so find out which ones the lawyers use and regularly stalk it.  

And yes my approach to pre-foreclosure is a lot of door knocking and i get a ton of stories and yes denial as well, sometimes people even fear coming to the door because of the situation and do not want to hear it.