My sense was that dealing with pre-foreclosures is most "flexible" but regardless I'd be up against more sophisticated players / need solid processes in place.

Fast forward to today, and that agent is a key player on my team--I never buy or sell a property without him.

A land trust makes the court procedures one step harder and disclose to the public everything that was done and who the players really are.

I thought this was a real estate investing site.Did you know that if you don't BUY, BUY, BUY it crashes the real estate market and that looks bad for the economy which in turn looks bad for the administration who assures us Everything is FINE and there is No Inflation and No Recession!

We own cabins in the PNW and the only electronics we have is a record player.

With this increased level of professional oversight, renters can rest assured that they're getting what they pay for.

They seem to do a good job of laying everything out there (very transparent) and even offer some interesting perks in some cases such as 1-2 year rental assurance which I thought was pretty unique. 

For an NBA player, no.

What assurance do I have, if any, that the buyer will adhere to the terms and make the payments?

Past market success is no assurance of future.