Thousands of dollars it costs to go to college is a huge negative factor in education.

I am aware that these home could be somewhere deep in the foreclosure process and they could be on some bankers desk amongst thousands of other homes? 

He did not want to write six one thousand dollar check, so one for 6K worked for us both...

Find a good title company to do the property report the day before auction a few hundred you spend now can save you thousands later on. and heed Rick H. there a teams of pros who spend thousands of dollars and years perfecting their systems .They are well funded and can afford to make a mistake on a purchase ,can you?

Spending thousands of dollars just to fix the place up so you can sell it?

Sometimes you are better off making the offer through a third party, lawyer or agent, you want to be arms length to be safe.Try to inspect the property before bidding, sometimes the mortgagor (owner) will damage the property just to get even with the mortgagee (lender), like removing all the dry wall, pouring cement down the commode, blocking the vent line (from the roof) with a tennis ball (keeps toilet from working right), short circuiting the electrical system, over flowing the sinks....etc.Be aware you are paying interest from the date of the sale until settlement, if it take the bank 6 months to ready this property for transfer, it could cost you thousands of dollars.Be very careful............ it is easy to make a mistake......look at the property, talk to owner, talk to trustee and auctioneer, read the contract before bidding.2) How do I prepare for the auction?

Not to mention the bad taste it puts in the tenants mouth to have some ragged beat up fridge show up that stops working a week later only to ruin $200 worth of groceries. 

Only a bad idea because my gut told me not to trust him, but I did anyways and lost a few thousand dollars  (humbled), then I improved my tenant screening methods, picked a very qualified tenant and had a great experience- because I took the time to be professional, raise my rent, got more proactive and clear on my expectations (wiser now).   

I also cashed out a small investment so I have cash available for the next property down payment, and it's hard to go through and math out each dollar now that there are thousands of them to account for.

I don't think they would be comfortable if I told them to just send me a check for a few thousand dollars and I'll have the title company complete the closing....even if we sign an assignment of contract agreement.