They have a database of all the Public Announcements (which is what the tax sales fall under here) by Parish.

While I do think there is plenty of blame to go around, and there are many homeowners, investors, or speculators that jumped into the bubble with eyes wide open, I mostly put the blame on the securitization process and on government policies that encouraged home ownership.Our educational system provides only the most rudimentary financial education.

It's great that you're spending some time educating your self first.

Credit isn't as important if your interested in creative financing techniques, I would highly recommend spending that money on more advanced education and or marketing depending on which strategy you end up choosing.

The only thing you can do is watch the public records after the home sells and see if the sales amount is less than what you offered, but that does not guarantee anything.

We're working on formalize our gatherings a bit more now that we're getting a decent bit of attendance.The plan so far includes beer, snacks, lots of networking, and a perhaps some speakers, in a pitch free, educational get-together.The bulk of this thing is going to be about networking and fun!

I’ll just keep on educating myself and looking.

This is exactly what they are trying to educate us on.

My goal here is to accumulate as much education and resources as I can and hopefully meet some really cool people who are doing awesome things in this area.  

They actually granted us an exemption from the requirement for some time, because A) they knew is was really not viable, and B) we have a solid track record of providing quality client education that they could trust.One option may be to move your IRA-owned LLC to another custodian that does not have this requirement, which really is meaningless window dressing.I will add, we are a  very compliance oriented firm with a distinctly conservative approach to reporting and operations using the IRA LLC platform.