@Jacob Chaney you need someone working in his corner to protects your investment.

Minimum Lot Dimensions for Duplex (a) A minimum lot width of 36 feet for interior lots, 46 feet for corner lots, and a minimum lot size of 2,000 square feet per dwelling is required when alley access is available (b) A minimum lot width of 37.5 feet is required when no alley access is available.

First off, A bank in a short sale situation is in control and will dick you around at every corner.

A duplex around the corner sold 2 weeks ago for 108k, cash, with 4 days on the market.

Search up in the right hand corner for "skip trace" there are quite a few threads with answers for you.

Some of the buildable land above the Mean High Water Line on one far corner of the lot was not included in my survey so I do not have title to it.  

Same way I approach homeowners and other investors who are guarded because of the stereotypical hack contractors around every corner.

And setting aside the awful, handwritten signs, does it really help any neighborhood's aesthetics to have signs that talk about "foreclosure help" staked in every corner?

If you do the roof half-baked, buyers will wonder where else did you cut corners -- and today, buyers have options, lots and lots of options.I know you know all this...just relaying my personal experience with this exact question.

The house could be rented on the main highway cheap for about 500 to 600 a month.It's a block house in okay shape.Being that it would go commercial one day and be torn down I wouldn't hardly put a dime in it just keep it functional for the tenant.It's 1 acre of level land on a corner of a highway.My issue is I don't want to sink a big portion of my capital into this property paying cash.Then I will be asset rich and cash poor.If I can pick it up cheap enough 5 to 10k then it make sense.If I have to spend 20k to 30k I would much rather save that for flips to grow my money to possibly 120k to 200k.Then I could allocate a portion of my funds for long term land banks while still having capital for my flips.It's a promising property but only for the right price.These security owners (banks) never know what they have.They use a bpo based on current land use and the house.