Can you find a cheap one to fix up, maybe a seller finance deal? 

Private is the cheaper option, hard is less cheap.

its a VERY VERY old play.Also Leigh Acres in FT Meyers is much like this 500k lots developed in the 50s streets pushed in and no water or sewer.. you google it today you will see 2 to 3 homes per block and each block has 50 lots... lots will sell cheap under 2k or so then be resold to forigners or other a lot of times on terms... you could also see evidence of this in the back of hunting and fishing magazines were flat land Montana ranches for 25k  2k down owner carry.

Smaller houses we stage ourselves, but for the higher end market, they need to see it filled with the type of furnishings they WANT INSIDE THEIR HOUSE - not the stuff their cheap friends have from ikea.

Some of these areas are slowly but surely looking more and more like Healdsburg, Sonoma, Calistoga...Over in Lake County you have some surprisingly cheap areas, especially when you consider the views of the lake and Mt.

What you want basically is a criminal search equivalent to the ones done for managerial or mid level employment background checks and they're just not cheap.

It's not cheap ($1250 per year per property), but it only takes one good booking to pay for it. 

energy is plentiful and relatively clean/cheap here.

They are going to mark it up to make their profit and even "cheap" REOs (in So CA) don't cash flow so I just don't see how it could work.

They're cheap, but also easily damaged.