As for the second option, I think it's a great strategy to use a HELOC to purchase an investment property as cash, at a discount of course, and then refinance into a mortgage that pays off the HELOC. 

I am a licensed agent and work in new construction so I was able to get discounted pricing on the renovations - I would estimate it would have been a $40k-$50k project for the average homeowner.This is a luxury high rise building built in 2008 in Buckhead that has very few 1 bedrooms.

My experience in Rochester NY (I live in SF Bay Area) mirrors Caleb's in many respects other than the fact that I stayed in for about 10 years and at my height owned 6 city duplexes and a few suburban SFR's.Lessons learned from my perspective:(1) Do not discount basic things like weather. 

He told me that it was a good deal because as dual agent and a private sale, seller gets discount on commission and I get discount on selling price at the same time. 

I bit the bullet and paid it after the PM gave a 20% discount.

Unless it's in a horrible area that will require a ton of babysitting, 30 units definitely seems large enough to get some bulk discount.

If I were to buy this home at the discounted rate in the preforeclosure state would the taxes be $14k?

As with most professionals, you get what you pay for and it always makes me nervous when people opt for a cheaper, discount broker.

I would add if you have boots on the ground near the property that would charge a reasonable rate to make the repairs after closing, you could negotiate a discount more than the cost of the repairs, giving you more control of how the repairs are done, but either way the items will need to be addressed.

A lot of forum members are experts in their respective fields related to real estate investing, whether that is real estate sales, wholesaling, flipping, buy and hold investing, lending, self-directed IRA and Solo 401k investing, or tax and legal guidance.There are some pretty nice discounts on many products and services offered as Perks to BP members that you might want to check out: https://www.biggerpockets.com/perks/proIf you haven’t been to it already, the Bigger Pockets blog features links to their fantastic podcast and many great articles: https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/The site has quite a few tools that can be helpful for new members.