Wins for both of us.

I know the expenses are more as well but you can definitely win in that market.

You have 20k in equity sitting there at X rate, if you can pull that out and make greater then X rate including closing costs on your new loan then its a WIN situation.

I kept a record of the winning bids and was wondering if I should contact these owners myself (for the larger amounts) and let them know for a small fee.  

For office I recommend, How to Win in Commercial Real Estate Investing.

However, depending on which entity is looking at you, doing so could be construed as circumventing the law (and proving otherwise could be a costly lesson, even if you win).The moral of the story... when there's a licensing issue, proceed with caution and err on the side of licensing (as you have already pointed out).  

Could be a very good win win situation. 

I'm not really sure where I'm going from here at the moment, but I've certainly come to the conclusion that you probably win or lose right out of the gate on most deals…  if you overpay from an investing standpoint you'll never do well, and if you buy at a good price you'll probably do fine (regardless of where the place ends up being).  

If someone wants to build a house in 5 to 10 years in that area, it could be a win-win situation. 

I know you were using hypotheticals, but I want to emphasize how much spread you really need.selling costs alone are going to be massive, like 7-8% I would expect. so for a 200k home its going to cost you ~15k just to sell it.Make sure to account for holding costs, if you finance this deal you're going to be paying insurance, interest, mortgage, taxes, etc.