What to do next?

[Farshad Mansouri]

Hey community,

I'm not new to BP but I haven't done any "official" deals yet.  I house hacked about 10 years ago, before I knew what house hacking was, then sold the place for a 40% profit.  Since then haven't done another transaction, but I'm anxious too.  

On my way to and from work is a house on a nice blue collar street, and the houses sell for around $380,000 (Emerson, Bergen county, NJ).  This is the ugly duckling of the block.  Tall grass, falling down screened in porch, cracked front window.  

Its also on a quarter acre of land which is more than most of the adjacent properties.  Its not for sale, but I'm not sure if its vacant or not.  What should I do next?  If I could buy it, I would get a hard money loan, and flip it.  But what should I do next?  How do I get the title information?  How much info can I get on line without having to go to the county office?  

I've been trying to Jump In and not have analysis paralysis.  (Although my one biggest limiting factor is I don't have a large amount of money as a back up, although it might be just enough, maybe 30K).

Thanks for any ideas.  Again, I'm just trying to get my first deal, and hopefully start the snowball rolling downhill.

Farshad