Since I am new to real estate I think that finding deals(wholesale) would be the best route for me initially and will spend as much time researching this particular topic.Thanks for reading my intro and I look forward to diving deep into this community and consuming as much knowledge as possible.  

Like others have stated, getting and maintaining a license is time consuming and not cheap. 

-John UlzheimerPresident of the Consumer Education @ SmartCredit.com

I agree that many people have used the equity in their home as a means to purchase many consumer items thinking the positive increases would continue.

I'm wondering, if I were to spend 50-100k less on purchasing a property out of state, what additional costs that come with out of state investing would consume that saved money?

Ultimately, you may need to call a lawyer, consumer protection or bad faith insurance lawyer.

_______________________The House Financial Services Committee approved a bill Thursday to repeal and rollback significant pieces of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.The panel voted to send Chairman Jeb Hensarling's (R-Texas) Financial CHOICE Act to the House floor, 34-26, along party lines.

This is time-consuming!

You can do it yourself, but it's VERY difficult and time consuming to get right.

You will never want to go through this process as it's ridiculously time consuming (6-9 months before the auction actually takes place from when the deed application was filed) and will cost you more than your investment is worth.