The seller can put the money in escrow, and it will be released to the buyer after a pre-determined time period.

I see opportunities like the ones you describe everyday, but narrowing down the above may help to steer you one way or the other when determining which one would be the best fit for you. 

@Khoa Nguyen just because an agent is extremely busy doesn't make them the best option for you, most agents know very little about investing and how to actually determine what's a good deal.

The capital gain gets added to your other income to determine which bracket you are in. 

We will be using these trips to determine whether these metros meet our needs or not.

I don't know how the seller is living in it now, but that isn't for me to determine.  

Better yet if they start nitpicking about repairs you can mention that if a handyman or vendor is sent to the property and it's determined nothing is wrong, they will be the ones paying for a service fee.Sometimes tenants think landlords are an on-call maintenance service with nothing better to do.

I gathered some information on ListSource for two different markets. The current area that I'm in, has shown 22 cash transactions within the last 12 months. The market that I would like to virtually wholesale had 74 c...

Got ahold of someone from Secretary of State office and determined there has been a release filed on that federal tax lien!

Yep - lenders use as is values and ARV (After renovation values) which would be "cost" - to determine how much they are willing to lend.