I'm poor and that a lot of cash to have tied up for half a year.

Tie up a house that fits criteria 2.

There is many ways you can lose your emd or have it tied up for a long period of time. 

I even woke up this morning with a little more pep than usual feeling stronger about my ability to get things done.

Thanks for clarifying Waylon...to dig a bit further...how would this tie into, say, doing a creative financing deal such as Subject To?

If you don't actually have the money to buy it yourself, please don't tie up someone's property whose house is in foreclosure, Hoping you can flip it, while the owner thinks it is really sold, and when you can't flip it they may not have enough time left to sell it to a Real buyer.

I believe those are for telephone and cable tie ins and they should straighten up easily.  

So it seems I'm going to have to cut the road and tie into the main that way.

Our ultimate goal is to relinquish our ties to the house, one way or another, whether that ultimately be through foreclosure, or through some more preferable scenario.I've already come to grips with the hit on my credit / potential hit to assets - it's just more important to get out from under the strain / burden of the situation and move on at this point, than anything else.  

I would think a regular mortgage would over a home equity loan it just seems kind of inefficient to have so much money tied up in the property that we own outright.