I am an agent in the Norfolk/ Virginia Beach area and naturally work with Navy clients and the Va loan on regular bases.   

I don't have enough context with your question, however - my suspician is that you have started up marketing, and perhaps have a more natural intuition and strength in converting a lead than some - but you either haven't put the time/thought into your systems and processes of 'what to do next' that now you're staring that down!

I found another interesting article: https://www.propertygeek.net/article/the-18-year-p...Basically the housing market is cyclical in nature, in my opinion moving into buy & holds is a great way to weather the storm.

well CA is not a tax lien state its a tax deed state.. so when you bid you own it.opening bid is just that.. you bid from there.. it will be rare to the extreme that a 600k property goes to sale at 25k.. and if it does it will get bid way up.bidding is simply what your willing to payyou can door knock send letters etc.. this is quite common.all liens are wiped out except IRS and those sunset 120 days no need to get super concerned with that stuffMost common is you buy a worthless property that has been let go to sale becasue its un buildable or other defects of a physical nature.

If your business can not run and your employees can not rent to provide you a income, naturally you stop feeling bad and for others could have prevented their circumstances and start to feel bad for your wallet.

Do you handle projects of this nature?

If the nature of your expenses in 2018 are in the form of research, investigating, meeting with professionals (lawyers, etc) and getting things ready to go, then these expenses may be classified as Start Up Expenses.If that's the case, then you may deduct up to $5000 of these types of expenses in the year you actually start your business (it sounds like 2018 was not that year, so 2018 would not be a viable year for this deduction). 

I suppose it's possible to finder a lender that would do it, but it's riskier so the rates would naturally be higher.

This is when a straight purchase is perfect as long as the seller is motivated enough to take a discounted offer.Of course, a delinquent seller will be more motivated than a seller who is current on their mortgage.For more details on these strategies read this article on BiggerPockets in the Innovative Strategies forum.The point of all of this is that having a good plan and setting it up so I would have no choice but to take action made me get out of my fears and actually get started.It's like stage fright, it seems intimidating at first, but once you start doing it on a regular basis, it starts to feel more natural and the fears fade away.

Most new investors are totally blind sided by how hard it is to get sober contractors to working in their small rental homes & things of that nature.