My partner and I used hard money to buy property and have about 180k in house so far.

Did you have an inspection done during the buying process?

When I got involved in notes I started with doing more deals - i was buying lower priced assets and choosing quantity over quality which was "risky" but I did very well and learned a ton.

So then basically you are buying the land for 400k, then demo (whatever that cost is) and the build new. 

Pay for your buy through normal loans, big bank loans, small loan options, or a mix of loan types.

As far as taxes go, selling it to you or on the MLS is still selling the property.If the owner includes it in their Trust, it can typically be inherited tax free if it is not sold.To buy the property, I would probably go for a lease option which is not counted as a sale, so no taxes are due.

I've been interested in buying property in Cle Elum and would probably do some sort of vacation rental.

The closer you get to the 1% rule means you'll be buying an old, fixer upper, in the worst parts of town.The other real trick is finding 4plex. 

That would be very typical work an investor would do when they buy a tax sale property.

When analyzing a luxury short term rental (STR) vacation home for investment in today's mortgage rate environment, the ROI & margins can be extremely tight.