It’s a distressed 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom 1650 sqft single family home in Kalamazoo MI.

I'm at a point in my life where I don't mind living in a place that needs some serious work and I have all the tools in my wood-shop to do most of it myself.HOWEVER my realtor inform me that the distressed properties I've been looking at do not qualify for conventional financing so I would need to start looking at newer homes.

The market was down in Charleston, SC in 2012 and the market was severely distressed but the student housing market was under served and rents had been holding steady.

These 2 money makers were both bought very cheap, distressed and full of squatters.

I also have no interest in distressed properties or turning this into a mass-market approach. 

It does carry more micro risk than you may realize - most fix and flip properties are highly distressed which means deferred maintenance.

I have various options.1) One lender says best bang for my buck is to buy a distressed house, say for $25K-$30K, hire contractor who does $15K of work, house appraises for $60K, I refinance with him immediately for 75% and get $45K back.

Defaults will likely continue to decline or flatline, thereby diminishing distressed inventory.  

Only time you can get that is if you add value with major renovation or find an incredibly distressed seller.

I have been purchasing foreclosures and distressed properties, deals off the market.I agree with @Jamiel Strickland there are buyers that want to offload, quick sale and you can sometimes pick these up at cheaper price.