If you are wholesaling and you're broker is cool with it, just make sure your process is transparent...a lot of brokers are not investors and they simply don't understand your perspective of using creativity to solve problems and earn a buck. 

They tend to frown on transactions where they don't get their cut.

If you have a general idea of the returns you'll be targeting with the smaller purchase nearby simply compare the two from the ROI and risk involved.

I have my favorite gear classified ad sites and get much better deals at those sites.Note a value add does not need to be constrained to simply rehabbing a property (but that is what my value adds have consisted of). 

- anyways my research indicates that the previous owner had an unpaid water bill of 15K that went unpaid and the city cut off the water, tenants bailed, and property went in to foreclosure.

Of the last 3 we bought 2 of them we found from approaching the owners directly, we saved ourselves allot of money by going directly to the title company and cutting out the realtor. 

That doesn't cut it for me.

@Ricky Knack Well, Someone is responsible for it.....typically your purchase price is enough to pay off All outstanding debts, and they simply paid from the seller’s proceeds at closing.  

It was simply a condition we thought we would request to see if the seller was amenable to.

He also began to explain, that, the laws state, you can “ KILL “ someone for simply talking crap and threatening you.