I would suggest you do some serious networking regularly by looking up local meet ups to talk with others that are doing REI successfully in the area you want to work in.

I have a vacation rental and many regular rentals.

Now of course with a regular seller-agent to buyer-agent, I just make sure the contract has what I need whether it's contingencies or something else and then sign.

If there are regular machines, find out who is maintaining those or if they belong to any particular tenant.Maybe should be done before an inspection, but check to make sure that the subdivision of the building is legal and all units are allowed.

I do have the risk that the rehab will go high but knowing what I know and what I saw I'm optimistic that I can keep it at $15,000.Hopefully I'll be writing another success story for the actual flip in the near future. you should do well on this one if there are no unforeseen issues, I buy regularly at Sheriff  Sales, the reason you had no competition, is the spread was not wide enough for most investors sight unseen, if I cant get in, I have to get it for 50% of ARV ore more depending on that ARV, based on your numbers, you dont have a lot of room for error, especially using hard money, 200k-15k= 185k- Commission and title 113k=172k- holding and finance costs 6k=166K- 124k=44k now if you get in the basement and the furnace is bad, or gone, and you have a bulging basement wall, and have to tear out landscaping or driveway to fix it,  your almost sunk.

Anyone here buy and sell regularly on the Florida county foreclosure auctions? 

@Baron HicklinAlso, I would repost this in the regular forums.

As an agent I recommend a home inspector for regular home buyers, because there is often things that get missed by a regular home buyer. 

From other threads I've read, wouldn't you be effectively only LEASING the property until you can exercise your OPTION to buy (at which time you would have to come up with actual funds)?

The new controls prevent the lender from exercising any influence over the appraiser or even speaking with them.