She is having trouble making her mortgage payments and the condition of the home is slowly getting worse.

Because things don't always go well with folks who are financially troubled ...http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/311/topics/592...http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/311/topics/902...

Too often there is a high correlation between being in financial trouble (e.g., foreclosure) and having little or no equity.  

Actually, rather than go through the trouble of relying on a realtor to bid for HUD homes on your behalf, I've chosen to obtain my own RE license.  

Even a skilled real estate investor can get themselves in trouble, and sometimes solely because they prepared their own documents.  

Frankly, you'd have a lot of trouble getting someone to lend you anywhere near 70% of $600k on your first rehab. 

In fact, it seems like a ton of work and time to build a good wholesaling business that will produce the profits people say I might need to buy a rental property for myself.Please understand, I have no problem with hard work. 

You can tell the seller during negotiations that the first sign of trouble from that A/C unit, any normal A/C tech is going to recommend you replace the whole entire unit.

I would like to be more productive in dealing with investments and real property to produce a more efficient lifestlye that contributes to my vision.

There's real estate investing, where you invest your money expecting to produce a return.