My name is Rachael and I'm a corporate insurance professional and a fairly new investor in the Spring Branch, TX area.

Clearly you will need to raise the $500k privately given your current credit situation.

They did a walk through privately. 

Thanks.From my outside observation,You are trying to wear too many hats and not putting other professionals in place. 

@Ankit Patel yes, it does only apply to liens that the city holds, private owners of tax lien certificates get what they paid for.

Securities regulation compliance, transparency, investor vetting, professional competition from well financed competitors to name a few.  

If I find private money for the purchase, I would need a partner for the rehab or downpayment... how would you structure a deal like this?  

For Sale by owner, Sales Agreements.I’m curious to learn what clauses or protections others builds into their sales agreements to ensure (or allow for legal action) if a private seller sells their property to someone else / backs out of your deal once already under contract.Fortunately this has never happened to me and the last 6 properties I bought were from private sellers without a real estate agent or attorney, however It could and likely will happen at some point...

It is funny that we are all IT professionals looking for an out by becoming a REI.  

I recently obtained my PE (Professional Engineering) license and I was wondering if there are any PE's out there who were able to leverage their license for real estate investing.I would love to hear any thoughts on this.