,and I am a senior in college...

Condos alone are on the edge of being a buyer’s market.”That could mean further price decreases in a market that’s already seen three straight years of falling prices, according to the Citizen.

Someone who has suffered through the crash and still investing today should be pretty smart and conservative enough.I can refer you an expat - he is a US citizen working in Bangkok (used to work in HK as a finance executive) - and he will tell you how he was able to build a sizable portfolio of properties in the US even while living abroad.

All,I'm planning on bidding on a property at Sheriff's sale in September that has the following liens:$540,000 senior mortgage$21,000 unpaid municipal taxes.  

A few years your senior, but I've learned so much from you in such a short time. 

...I'll venture a guess here - the HOA liens are not in the most senior lien position, so when the HOA forecloses there is an underlying mortgage (or multiple mortgages) still in place, on what is probably an underwater property ...

Look for a loan officer who has years of experience, a senior officer, not a 24 year old out of college who has VP on a name plate.

If in city limits you will have city and county taxes.Make sure that the property you are considering buying does not have a senior exemption making taxes low or that they won an appeal that is fixing to go back up.Look for special assessments and for the city and county what the mill rate has been trending at (going up, staying flat, or decreasing and by how much each month as a percentage).The assessors could have been using low values as well the last few years but with things rising in many markets they will want to reassess to get more money flowing into the county and city coffers.Usually you can look up to sometimes 5 to 10 years worth of bills and assessments online with the county and city tax assessor websites if they are urban and suburban.If it is rural they might not have that info online.

The lien or mortgage that is oldest is the "senior" lien, and gets first priority in a foreclosure.

I'll dive deeper into the title search results this evening to ensure that there are no additional mortgages that would not have been cleared at foreclosure (e.g. senior lien to the foreclosed note).Biggest unknown right now is figuring out how to get the documents properly drawn up and recorded.