In such a small sub-market I would first try to address concerns involving demographics, employment, and supply. 

If he lives out of that City you could write him/her a letter of your interest and how you could pay the tax bill as part of your offer.In the meantime, you might ask the Tax Assessor clerk who handles the tax foreclosures and ask them if a mortgage company is involved. 

But if you want personal involvement and running around, it's going to take more than the eventual promise of a commission on a lowball offer under current market conditions.

It depends on your risk tolerance you can find these properties on MLS but they will have lower yields, because you do not know what paperwork is involved you probably need someone to help regardless, a realtor will do this "for free" on MLS properties. 

When you form a Partnership the best type keeps you in control and makes all Partners involvement and ownership variable.When you purchase them, at least 32 units will enable you to hire a Property Management Company and do the daily operations.

Well typically you'd want to get a lawyer involved to draw up a contract, since he's your brother I'm not sure if that's what you want to do but regardless you need to agree on the terms of the business relationship beforehand to prevent any disagreements and disputes:1) Who makes major decisions (ie renovations, evictions, selecting tenants, etc.).

I have to agree with Kurt, not that it's a difficult problem when you understand the values involved.

The payments, which were not disclosed to lenders, had the effect of substantially reducing the sales price below what was represented to the lenders.Dozens of properties were involved in the scheme, resulting in several million dollars in losses to lenders, the news release said.https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article208752464...This guy... didn't  get so lucky.

I too look for opportunities to get all 4 of my kids involved in my projects all the way from the basements to the attics, the attorney to the title company. 

The concept you laid out in your spreadsheets is very interesting, and I love the creativity involved.