And you can change the defaults.

Institutional mortgagees typically don't mess up on this for normal foreclosures.On final note, the law on this topic can change pretty drastically depending on the state and the federal circuit.

They will make you one or you can change the locks and let the tenant know that you secured their place while they were out of town.

This means you either have to cash in another investment (not always can be done fast enough), or have a cash account (money market) that just sits around making way under what it could be making in a real investment...hoping it's enough when the time comes to need it.Example 2:  Since you are NOT the SDIRA, and you don not own the property (the SDIRA does), you are NOT able to do anything to or with the property...such as cut the grass, handle rehab, etc... 

You need actual hard fast numbers for:a - Existing debt  ("...could be anywhere between $100k-$120k..." is useless info)b - Rehab needed  ("...gonna need at least another 15-20k..." is also useless)c - ARV  ("The ARV is about $166k.." again, useless) d - Rent (unknown, but critical to analyze for a rental)e - taxes and insurance as a rental (unknown, but critical to analyze for a rental)f - cash you have to work withMy recommendation would be to get the above information as exact as you can...or, pass on the house. 

Even if you do not make much money, you will learn the fast pace way to make deals. 

If the roofer needs to replace portions of the roof sheathing you have a price upfront that can be used to calculate the Change Order for replacing the sheathing.I think in the past I've been quoted around $35 to $50 per sheet (labor & material).

You might think that without money changing hands that it can't be binding as there's no "consideration" - but my attorney tells me that courts have held that the offer itself is a "thing of value", so the contract itself can be the consideration.It's unlikely that the unsophisticated FSBO will end up bludgeoning you with this, but if the brother-in-law turns out to be an attorney, it could go sideways.Strategically, I'd get face to face with him. 

Taxes seem extremely high changing the bottom dollars when working my numbers. 

Once I changed that my total cash left in the deal changed to close to $40K.