The buyer pulled a fast one at closing ended up getting a mortgage from a private party. 

I was able to secure 35% of the total equity ONLY.

Im getting an error when I try to respond to some of you who have sent me a private message. 

I mentioned to him that after his parents paid the first months rent and security deposit I would only accept money from him.

The idea is to secure a HELOC on their home (I'm open to other suggestions) in order to invest in income properties out of state.  

I'm a little nervous about the whole auction thing, whether a private auction or a sheriff's sale.

I use private money or hard money or my own cash and buy the house at the negotiated price. 

You can look towards investing within private mortgage corporations but their underlying assets will, in all likelihood, be in Canada. 

Image if I had 30, just 3 x those numbers.Directly investing in a turnkey rental or small MFH is a good way to start to learn and build up the war chest to go into my scaleable investments such as private placement syndications.

Hard money, private lenders and bringing in a partner are other options.