That way, when a great deal comes along, you will spot it early, instantly know it is a great deal, and be able to pounce on it with confidence.

This reduces my cost and allows me to build more instant equity.One last thing.  

It sounds like it could be a potentially good deal with some instant equity built in once you rehab.  

@Steve Vaughan  unfortunately the seller does not have the right to collect the rent they don't own it.NOw if they would have done what I always would have done when I was doing these as a seller I would have done a wrap.. in CA its called a All inclusive trust deed.. .. the buy buying it still buys it.. but they owe ME the payment like a seller carry.. and I make the payment on my loan thereby knowing instantly if they are defaulting... when you default to  a lender it usually takes a bit to find out ... and the damage to your credit is done.. .also with the AIDT you have the Assignment of rents clause that lets you go after the rents...

I'm a newbie to real estate investing so it was a good way for me to get instantly exposed.  

There's many vendors that can help you with this and can get you setup instantly.  

These are Fannie Mae Forclosures.Other ways are driving around, "driving for dollars" looking at individual bank websites for REO.s, Keep looking, I do spend a lot of time on the computer, but automating searches is a great way to get instant notifications of properties you may be interested in!

More-or-less a reliable instant appraisal system that a 95%+ accurate would be pretty nice.

I bought my first primary residence this way and had instant equity so I know it can be done!

This isn't the path to instant riches-- it's slow and methodical, but it's working for me (two flips and one hold property over the last 1.5 years).It took a few weeks of work, but eventually I found two local Tampa banks (big banks pretty much just laughed) that offered me fantastic terms on a PLOC (one is 1% over Prime and the other is 2% over Prime).