If these deals were single families I would do a reno in a heart beat because the "BRRRR" method works well with the equity game.

@Marty Summers If your end game is to fix the house up and sell it for a profit why not just go ahead and do that?

Does anyone know of a title company in the Sacramento, Ca area that will do double closings?

You will be hard pressed to find someone to buy it with cloudy title. 

There's a few different ways there are title companies or private companies that specialize in NOD lists.

Auction.com said I can purchase through the bank's title company (Title 365), the local lawyer I spoke with said I could purchase through him?  

Did you ever play the game Monopoly as a kid and ever win?

If so, you may want to avoid people who play those kinds of games.

Liability in this game is huge and if you work on a house yourself or you employ people to do it and it malfunctions then it's on you to fix it, whereas when you hire subs it falls on them to warranty their work.

Even if I get an addendum signed, the recording will be discovered via title search before closing, right?