My biggest fear now is:What if I buy at the auction a property that is occupied and the occupants won't let me in for an appraisal?

Acknowledge the large risk they are taking on and offer to ease their fears with it by any means you possibly can. 

For example, west beltline is 2 years out from completion in certain neighborhoods, but some people are still fearful of investing for lack of security or management, EVEN THOUGH THEY KNOW the beltline is a treasure trove of housing price implosion.

I've also (thus far) stayed away from condos/town homes (for fear of HOA costs and things like that eating into profits too much -- I may need to rethink that idea, too).  

I didn't build those yet because I fear they will come to me with a deal and I won't have the cash at the moment to jump on it.

These are more prevalent outside of the MLS and they take work to find.Safeguarding against downturns - this is quite easy, especially when it comes to larger multifamily units/apartment complexes.  

They think if they take a risk they may fail, fear that if they fail they somehow wont be able to pay for bills, fear what others will think of them, etc.

I told myself that I wouldn't limit my actions based on fear, but I found myself doing just that.

Drop bids were prevalent in AZ and NV and parts of CA during the high foreclosure times not so much here but 3 to 5 times a year I got a smoking deal.you had such a melt down in PHX and Vegas.. that 600k mortgages on houses that were done 100% financing and the bank knew the house would only sell for 300k if they got it back.. so they just dropped the bids accordingly instead of bringing them on the books.

We dont give any account numbers to tenants to deposit checks do to fraud issues that are prevalent in florida.