Find a distressed property on the MLS in a low income, rental area for under $17,000 if you have areas like that around you.2.

Here is the sequence of events broke down:November 2008 - Got married Found distressed property and put in offer Found tenants for my 2 bedroom home that I paid$725/month plus paid $150 or so for a home improvement loan.

The other thing is they have the 203K rehab loan where you can buy a distressed property and finance the repairs.

So my options here for flipping are 1. calling banks and seeing if they have any distressed property they want to sell, and 2. finding deals myself through various sources (newspaper, craigslist, etc) Also finding investors for each way.

I did a small test mailing using this data - posted results in another thread about it.The leads we got we not bad, seemed to be mostly absentee owners (that were motivated sellers with distressed properties), but none of them were actually vacant.

It's about a couple of young guys, one a RE agent and the other a GC, who buy distressed properties, renovate them to a condition above what I think the average renter would expect and then rents them out.

I want to help stimulate communities which have been neglected and which would benefit from having distressed houses purchased by someone like myself, fixed up, and sold to a new beginning family for an affordable price.

Great info Ned, I appreciate it - So the follow-up question is, What tools and or tichniques are being used to figure out if the property that looks distressed is owned by an individual or if the bank has a share in it.

My plan was to be able to buy two distressed for every one rehabbed property I sold.

What strategy can I use to help a distressed home-owner who has:- a foreclosure date of 8/6- declined a short-sale offer- not paid mortgage in 2 years & owes ~300k- limited income- need for assistance to move (cash at closing)Owner would like to stay in home, if at possible.I'm a newby investor, so please consider that when you reply.