Going the eviction route under the circumstances you describe may be time consuming and will probably not yield the results that you are hoping for.

Usually Sub2 is most common in this situation.https://www.dfs.ny.gov/consumer/hetpa.htm

Far too time consuming, and a lot can go wrong really fast and expensive if you don’t go the plumbing or electric right.

I'm looking to analyze deals daily and could imagine it being time consuming to always contact a realtor for this. 

Podcasts are a great way to consume knowledge as well. 

VU isn't a bad or predatory lender or anything but they take FOR EVER to close.

This house was an REO that had sat on the market for ever a year.

We didnt always plan for it to be an eventual rental so every improvement we made was done with the thinking that this may be our forever house and we wanted it to last.

I think the response and how you handle the interaction with the consumer after really goes a long way.

Since it is a short sale, I'd wait until you get some idea if the offer is accepted or not.Finding the right guy in the bank to OK it can take forever (especially if its a big lender like Chase or WF).Even if you get an appraisal today, it may take 6 months and the appraisal may not be worth anything or inaccurate.