I commend you for taking that step and congrats on the sale!

What are the steps of due diligence when it comes to auctioned properties?

The hands on approach will help you and ease the fear factor in stepping in and doing your first deal.  

Go one step further and set up your account to automatically pay him for 12 months. 

I have a tax deed on a vacant acre of land and the taxpayer indicated she wants to redeem the property.What paperwork is needed to convey the property back to the taxpayer after they have agreed to the redemption amount and what are the steps in this process for me as an investor?

The lending would be for 2 kinds of deals: Double close wholetails (where we buy it cheap and put it right on the market to sell to a retail buyer) or owner financed deals, where we sell it to someone who may not be able to get a traditional loan today but is taking positive steps in that direction.

You just took a big step towards starting off in real estate investment.

EDIT: To clarify, have your agent schedule a showing and go through the proper steps to go in vacant houses, don't just "go into vacant houses"

Before you look for funding, I've learned that figuring out what you want to do with it is the next step.

Many years ago when I was doing flips, I had access to a list of all of the foreclosure sales at the courthouse steps for Jackson and Clay county.