@John Montgomery Congrats on getting close to negotiating your first deal...I would say the most important thing is to "know your objective"...There are a lot of great answers on this thread, but ultimately we are all making "shots in the dark" as to the best option for you because it's our perspective...This is still valuable, but can become very confusing because you don't know each person's perspective...MY Suggestion is to know your goal over the next 3-5 years...I will let you know a little about my perspective...I am a Rehabber and Have Been Buying and Rehabbing over the past 8 years here in Chicago...I've been in your shoes...I wanted to be the Big Shot and rehab deals straight out the gate(Little to No Money & No Experience but a few REI Boot Camps- basically No Experience)...To say I've had a lot of Failures during my 14 years of being involved in studying REI is an Understatement...If I was starting all over again, and my objective is to be able to build a robust REI Biz that can allow me to rehab 6-12 homes a year, wholesale 2-3 properties per month, and build a rental portfolio...I would first focus on getting good at one objective first...Generally most people start out wholesaling because it doesn't require the money or experience rehabbing or landlording requires...I would start with Wholesaling...go find 5-10 very good rehabbers and find out their Criteria for a Great Deal...Commit to building Value for them and ultimately a great relationship.With this you will already have buyers lined up, you know what areas to look for properties in, and you can research public record and see what they are paying for properties on the acquisition(and also ask them, but keep them honest by researching public record)...At this point become the best wholesaler to these rehabbers...you will learn a lot just in this process alone...How to evaluate Comps, Repair Values, Neighborhoods, etc...Which a great wholesaler will know how to do...It will make your deals easier to sell...Ultimately I would see which one of these Rehabber will be open to the idea of partnering/mentoring me on how to get into that arena...They may even allow you to follow the progress of their deals...Every deal has its surprises and over the course of 10-20 deals you will get a real life idea of what those surprises are, and even understand the "reason why" you calculate certain contingencies into deals and also what are the most costly mistakes or repairs to look for and avoid on deals...The value of this Experience will accelerate your learning curve...In my experience one mistake for a beginner can cost you a ton of money and even put you out of the rehab business.There is no way you can learn all the mistakes you must avoid by reading a book or taking a 3-day training program. 

I will provide them a recent bank statement showing a balance greater than $300,000 and offer to pay a year of HOA fees in advance, and I will offer to have a third party investigator do a background check on me to prove that I do not have a criminal record, given that I am paying cash there is no logical legal reason why they should refuse my application, but this application process may have little to with the law.

For the record, it is a Fannie Mae home.

Before you did that I would get the buyers personal financial statement, net worth, liquidity, other properties they own, track record, etc. to know odds of the bank approving them.If the buyer is weak and only has the 30k down and no development track record the likelihood the bank would agree to an assumption is low.

Can you look at the country records to see if you can buy the tax lien?

This will allow you to look at the minutes and recorded information that will have the contact info for the next of kin.

This allows me to have a deed of trust recorded if I need to use third party funds. 

Also look for areas with population growth Where to find your dataIn terms of the input data we discussed above, here is where you should be looking for each of these: Property Details: This information should be available from the seller, but more comprehensive and detailed information can also be obtained from your local County Records OfficePurchase Information: Obviously the seller is going to name a purchase price (which will likely be negotiable, of course), but the more important information here will be any upfront maintenance or improvement work that needs to be completed to ensure that the property can (or continue to) meet its income potential.

Especially for the delinquency notice, that was reported by someone, and there will be a record of that so you can follow-up with the reporter first.There are formal dispute policies for credit reports that contain errors.

A dwelling unit in a residential property that is divided into a maximum of three (3) units, one of which is occupied by an owner of record as his or her principal residence.