You gave up too easily, IMO.

Make sure you are offering good deals to investors, or you will lose your reputation in a hurry.

If you don’t start with having a winner’s mindset, then you’re going to lose.

Obviously If I were losing money with my 5 rentals, I wouldn't add more to my portfolio.

The answers will range due in large part to how the transfer (wholesale deal) takes place and the price points.For instance, if an REO, it is likely not "assignable" so if the buyer of the REO is using a second escrow for a double closing, then they will want a non-refundable deposit so you don't walk away and leave them holding the bag.If it is assignable, then it all depends on the contract wording that they are taking over, if an inspection period timeline is left over, they still have that.In other wholesale deals, they are mostly non-refundable deposits to keep you from backing out at the last minute with nothing to lose, that protects the wholesaler.As for inspections, typically, you as the buyer should do your inspections first, then decide if you want it and at that point, a refundable deposit is not needed, you have already made your choice to purchase the property.

Competition tends to be fierce.Word of caution... right now especially, local markets (At least in Atlanta) tend to bubble easily.

I look for properties I could easily turn into a rental and get a desired return on if I get the deed.

The banks are still informed that they are going to potentially lose their interest in the property and they can pay off the lien to keep it, but the state/county/city needs to be able to collect the property taxes and this is the best way for them to do that.It is in the best interest of the public for tax liens to be superior to mortgage liens.

What I meant with REO brokers is they are not going to sit and secure a crap property over and over with the low commission they are making in a high crime rate area.They get paid a set commission regardless of the price.So whether it stays secure is not a real concern to them.If they sell a 10k house but make 10% which is 1k the condition doesn't matter to most of them.If a 200k house gets trashed where you make 6k on 3% commission or 3k on where the house gets trashed and sells for 125k the broker would stand to lose a bunch of money in that case on the sale.You could argue the broker stands to lose money by losing other listings from the bank in more sales but I don't know many brokers that do more than drop a sign with these types of properties.

You have nothing to lose.