He wont return my phone calls, constantly makes up excuses, lies to me and puts me off when I tell him to meet me for a showing.I'm under contract with him and I want out.

Closing is normal, except it ends up being delayed because the bank can't get everything signed and returned to the title company on time.You can certainly ask that the bank pay for certain items at closing.Your offer will state who pays for what for things like the title insurance, appraisal, survey, etc.

You could try to track down the new location of the owner, either by mailing a letter and writing "Return Address Requested" on the envelope, or by getting the current tax payer via the county websites, and then using one of the search sites such as www.zabasearch.com, www.skipease.com, www.whitepages.com.

This results in higher incomes and high return on investment.

(Great for me, less competition and better returns).

(too many bad memories) She said that she had talk to a few people about selling the house but stopped because they seemed "sleazy".

Tax lien certificates you get a certain rate of return like you said (16-24%).

And always ask for a card in return, whether the person you are talking to is in the real estate business or not; it is good business karma and making a habit of it will lead to some pleasant surprises.

You now have about $12K invested in the property, if you include closing costs on the loan.You rent the place for $1050/month, and assuming an 8.5% vacancy rate (a month a year) and expenses of 40% of net income (a little low, but okay since you just rehabbed), you should see the following returns:- $40,000 in total equity created from the property ($120K valuation minus $80K loan)- Year 1 Cash flow: $862- Year 1 Equity Accrual from Payments: $894- Cash-on-Cash Return: 7.43% (not including equity generated by rehab)- Total Return: 15.14% (not incl. rehab equity or tax benefits, which are investor dependent)- Total Return Including Equity Generated by Rehab: 347%If you choose to keep the property for longer than a year, your total return will obviously drop, but you're still receiving nearly $1000 a year in cash flow, $1000 a year in equity, and still have $40K in equity generated by the rehab.Rinse and repeat...

So it is just a return to a saner banking climate.