Dana, did you use any tutorials to get up to speed?  

Your time here will be well spent.Since your interest lies in flips I added the below links to help you get up to speed and gain confidence to carry out a transaction.Frankly, you are nervous because your knowledge base is lacking and that plays on your mindset and thus invokes a lack of confidence.So, as @Christopher Brainard rightly said you need to educate yourself and don't rush to make a purchase because you think you have to......do so when you are fully prepared.http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/01/07/flipping-houses/ (ultimate step by step guide to flips)https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/05/18/how-to-flip-houses-3/ (5 steps to flipping)https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2010/4/28/the-8-rules-for-flipping-in-2010/ (The 8 rules for flipping - J.

You can for sure do it without a mentor but I recommend going to local real estate investor meetups and maybe finding one, it can really speed up your progress.A lot of the houses I saw with my mentor were bank-owned vacant properties. 

[Just read newspapers, housing reports, etc and you should be fairly up to speed.]But it can be quite hard to predict the FUTURE - especially with the uncertainty going on in today's market.

I did look up the tenant's record again and see only a speeding ticket so there doesn't appear to be an active judgement or even a court case regarding this.The tenant has always paid on time and does well enough with care of the property.

Speeding is illegal.

To speed things up, get a sale contract and place the full amount in escrow and have the escrow agent notify the trustee and the lender, no contingencies in the contract, cash sale.

The best ones are the ones that monitor credit scores for sourcing deals because those lists beat the other ones for speed...if you are fishing from the same pond as every other investor you will have too much competition to get quality deal flow.

If you need a contractor to help you get up to speed on how much a rehab is going to cost you should consider paying him for his time.  

Or do most people offer a 30 day close and just speed things up after they find the buyer ?