I have seen deals die a day before they were supposed to close because the wholesaler was not entirely truthful to the escrow officer.Quite literally, the escrow officer is sort of like your criminal defense attorney.  

Perhaps they have some sort of qualification???

check out this image for the area in white that is ok for USDA loans.

yeah, thank you, honestly what sparked my interest was a couple ads from a company called Renatus, but after further research i deemed it slightly deceiving but i think meeting people would really help, Id like to find some sort of internship over the summer to learn more, thanks!

not sure how Virginia works @Russell Brazil  probably knows.. but it sounds like there is a redemption period and you have someone trying to upset you bid.we see this happen sometimes in Orygun  NOT often but you will get an investor that will go to the home owner and talk them into redeeming and splitting profits  that sort of thing

More advanced ways of finding distressed off market properties are think of various conditions under which an owner of a distressed property with equity may be highly motivated to sell, and then figure out what sort of paper trail that may leave ... follow the paper trail to find the owner.

as Jay suggested a trip to the planning department would be worth your time.. however a visit with a good land planning company in PDX would be worth it as well.Key will be where your house is situated on the lot.. unless your thinking of demolishing the house.I have 9 projects going now in PDX all with some sort of lot split they take from 1 to 2 years to get done and 5 to 20k each ...

They want your business and I'm sure will help you sort it out.  

Understand some out of area sellers create a false dilemma as part of their sales pitch so sort of REI deniers for SoCal cash flow as this would be obvious competition if their potential clients knew better.

And if so what sort of renovations did you do?