They're in a jam that requires a lawyer and/or real estate agent experienced in the looooong process of loss mitigation.

To simplify,  It's going to be tough to reproduce your $110k income in the first few years in  RE ( just based what i've read/ experienced)Possibly make some calls to financial advisors that are RE friendly?   

@Tom Tran your plan may work but the difficulty is finding a property that meets your criteria and has an owner willing to allow a lease option.

What is the best way to find an experienced parter to work with?

I am a pretty experienced Canadian investor looking to invest in the United States with buy-and-hold properties in TX, ND, SD, NE, TN, WY, and LA.

Hello,I'm looking for someone experienced with negotiating short sales.

It would help make it less nerve-racking the 1st time around.Hypothetical Deal =     160k  ARV  x  0.75 =   120k -   25k repair  =    95k  as a maximum offer  ( Many experienced investors in Texas seems to want a $30k +  profit on rehabs or they won't do it.  

I have been thinking about working under an experienced investor in my local area of CHATTANOOGA, TN this winter.

I only see this in commerical, and in hundreds of projects the only time I saw a client ALMOST use it was on a $20mm project where the GC was 1.5years late, even then the client didn't do it because of the difficulty. 

I know most of the experienced real estate investors have a system in place for what they use over and over for materials during rehabs.