I do all of our marketing in office, I own a call center that takes calls for other investors, and I regularly close/am involved in deals.

Can anyone chime in on their experience with a tenant occupied public auction, where they may be paying rent regularly to the owner, but the owner let it go to foreclosure?

Then you could claim the rest of the flips each year as dividends & just pay regular income tax (~30-35%).

Also, you need to consider the city of Austin short term rental code compliance if you are doing it regularly.

I've personally been thanked many times by neighbors when we buy a home to flip.As a local investor, i could easily choose that same mindset because "outsiders" are regularly competing with me for deals, but instead I actively offer to help knowing that they are choosing to invest in my community and that is good for all of us!

I would never work with only one investor unless I knew they were actually going to buy the deals that fit their criteria.If you're not finding any deals worth closing on, then maybe you need to ask for help locating deals or get into another business.On another note, take a job to earn regular income, and continue the real estate part time. 

If you already have an slab I would build a garage, it can be done very affordably if you don't use regular commercial garage companies and go with regular guys it would be 7-8K$ all in.                

I have never worked with him but I have met him several times at the meetup he hosts.  

Is it too informal to ask the questions via email or is it better to do so over coffee like a regular job interview?  

Now that you mention it, I'm 90% sure that those services provide cell phone numbers (I'm called to my cell phone from random advertising on a regular basis because they get it from services like this).But if you want to make sure you're getting their cell phones 100%...