She also just wants these properties off of her hands, and thought it would be a win-win type of scenario...Which is also why I was looking into Wholesale but I never intended on doing that as my focus so I am not sure of the logistics for that and Bird-dogging...

It's not such a big deal until the water is rising quickly and you are cursing the day you chose to take the advice of an internet message board instead of purchasing the flood insurance and your years of cash flow are about to go poof...or glurg glurg...as it were.The FEMA maps are based on probabilities, not on the anecdotal evidence of elderly citizens or even if a flood has historically occurred in a certain time frame.  100 year flood = 1% chance of that area being flooded.  500 year flood = 0.2% chance of that area being flooded.As with any insurance you can forego it and save a few bucks and you win!!...

You could if they could easily be sold in 30 days on the open market.. but the locals they aren't going to over pay they are going to do what you did buy for 1 k and put 8k in them and have the same house for 9 to 10k... your all in 20k house is ( as us lenders like to say) bulk value or true wholesale value worth 10k maybe.But again its fun playing monopoly,, lets get a report after you have owned them 24 months.. that's what will be the telling sign.. you will have half your money back.Plus what most investors fail to put into their cash flow calculations is your cost to travel there and your time and effort to analyze this and then coordinate rehab.. and you have gone through what most do in Detroit ( already fired one PM) PM's that work in these low level areas are tough to find.. and many end up just walking away with the owners rent.. or lying about if they are rented or not...

The only drawback is you will have annual Realtor association dues to pay but as long as you are active and making commissions off your own deals (and the deals of others like friends/family) you'll easily cover that cost.  

They are typically electronic docs that can be easily emailed to you.

You'll learn a ton, and if you snag one good deal off of it, you'll make that back easily.

If I don't like it I don't have to send the deposit check and I easily back out.

This is the place to celebrate those wins!

Great for landlords in a rental market where rents go easily for $650-900/mnth for 9-5 tenants or Section 8 tenants.

It's all about finiding and negotiating a win-win for each party.