I got on the phone with the lien holder and got them to settle the 10k debt for 6k and at closing three check were written.  

Food for thought.  

Now you get to see more rentals (my guess is 25% or so are now rentals), and in them, you get to observe a lot of subsidized tenants. 5 years ago most of the inquiries I received were from Section8 voucher holders.

We then started keeping our dog food (which was in the house) in a sealed container and asked our tenants to do the same. 

Anyway, just food for thought! 

Just some food for thoughts.

As mentioned you can work to effect a short sale with you preferably being the buyer.A short sale is when a mortgage holder agrees to have a house sold for less than what it is owed and does require the approval of the mortgage holder.If a house has more than one existing mortgages, a second or a third for example then those mortgage holders can be or can be caused to be motivated to discount their mortgages or in some cases those mortgages can be entirely illiminated.However, in my opinion those kinds of deals are better left to more experienced investors with a greater wherewithal but if you want to get your feet wet you can consider joining forces with someone more experienced because as they say, "10% or something is better than 100% of nothing".

If the food is good he is committed and from the area I think it makes sense.  

The neatest trick with the travel write-offs too is that you can write-off the per diem amount for the city rather than your actual food and such expenses.

If a defaulted note is being auctioned, and has a 2nd lien, is the opening bid the amount the amount that the first lien holder agrees to accept?