Although it is possible that the (former) owner didn't know about the foreclosure, the odds are pretty steep that he is lying to you.While most of us investors might continue to hope and wish that "notice of foreclosure" means the date of the lis pendens or "notice of default", the feds and state case law have gone on to define it, for the purposes of this law, as:"The date of a “notice of foreclosure” is defined as the date on which complete title to a property is transferred to a successor entity or a person as a result of a court order or pursuant to provisions in a mortgage, deed of trust, or security deed."

I can find FL notes for 50-70% discounts compared to ARV.

The JV will be in a new special purpose entity anyway.

These transactions are sometimes referred to as "parking arrangements" and may also be structured in ways which are outside the safe harbor.Proper Purpose - Both the relinquished property and replacement property must be held for productive use in a trade or business or for investment.

They will serve a purpose for you one day again in the future, perhaps, but the experience you will be getting by self-managing should give you a lot of insight on how to hire and manage a PM to your satisfaction.

Prices still seem good (granted I'm comparing to GTA prices and not, say, Milwaukee or Indianapolis, etc!)

Where are the prices now compared to when they bought them?

@Trevor Lohman - there is a very interesting discussion on crowd funding going on right now (http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/520/topics/105106-comparing-crowdfunding-sites-for-re?

All residential properties (1 to 4 units) are valued based on the comparable sales approach (using "comps").

Most will sell out, they want the money now, not the headaches to get more later and many realize pop's old rentals aren't going to appreciate.Another issue, properties in a trust can be expensive to administer since trust accounting can require market value assessments for accounting purposes, meaning appraisals, not book value or guesstimates.