And yet a cohesive strategy seems to be illusive when you ask each person what they plan to do about it.

@Ming Lim I have no illusions about it being work, but when you say "hands on" it conjures up images of Ming up to his elbows in toilet water fixing things. 

in Non disclosure states your tax records will show purchase price 10 bucks.. this is how they work in Mississippi.. so if its off market there is no way to know what someone paid for it.. the assessor assess it by local values for tax purposes.In CA in the good ole days it was common for developers to pay more stamp duty.. as you could back into sales price by figuring out the transfer tax as it was based on a % of the sales price.. so developers would pay more on purpose to give the illusion they paid more than they really did..  

That is very true they are more naturally brighter and gives off the illusion of a bigger space (getting more bang for your buck!).

So the competition for deals gets crazy by all the first timers that will flame out and never do a deal but that does not make it better for those that do it for a living your constantly competing against someone with a 2k limit on their credit card and can hang on sites like this to get just enough knowledge to try to become a RE investor.. so in essence the market the interenet the desire to make a bunch of money because there is some illusion that RE is the way to rich's and lying on the beach.. has created the hordes all doing the same thing.We see this is the courthouse steps buying activity on the West coast every Tom Dick and Harry that can scrap up 200 to 300k in cash ( and there are Many) decide they want to buy foreclosures.. they show up to auction run properties up to a value that makes 0 sense buy it.. and never come back because they lost money or what have you.. and right when you think you got rid of those folks 5 more replace them... same thing is happening when your in the wholesaling business or distressed asset business.

You can remotely monitor the property and address any potential issues quickly.Automated tasks: Smart lights can be programmed to turn on/off automatically, saving energy and adding a touch of security by creating the illusion of occupancy when the property is vacant.Consider using a smart home hub like Google Home or Amazon Echo.

HML just rebranded to PML to give the borrower the illusion that their rates would be lower or terms easier.folks are always looking for that PML who will lend for far less than market.. and as you mention those would generally be individual lenders.ANY COMPANY PML or HML that advertises and holds them self out as a lender no matter what they call themselves are HML or PML they are one in the same.what your getting at with the larger companies is where they get their money..

Direct to the guy who is direct, who is direct to the barber who heard of a package that's being sold by a guy who knows a guy.Currently I am directly in line to the illusive Lehman REO... via 7 people of course.

As that was happening, the illusions of large pool trades prompted some brokers to lie and misrepresent truths about their identity and the owner of the capital and the owner of the loans.

"Risk-free" is an illusion in investing, flying, or life, so risk mitigation and risk awareness, as you said, are the key.I think the best at this in the investment world is Warren Buffett.