The main issue I found was that sometimes, even though the home is abandoned, the owner still has that abandoned address with an untouched mailbox as their mailing address, so you know they won’t get your letter.

Also, how can I technically know when a listing has expired?

She has health issues and will probably let it go into foreclosure.

I have a self-directed 401K (solo 401k), and purchasing real estate for buy and hold.However, I would like to grow it by taking after tax dollars (W2) and issuing myself a promissory note of 50K but instead of doing “minimum” payments of prime + 1%, could I artificially increase it to say prime + 5%?

I need a real estate agent that can see a place, understand the work it needs, highlight issues and perks, share cost estimates, ideally even understand a bit about zoning (at least who to speak to etc.).

Just touring the units will give you a good idea on how they treat the property and also gives you a chance to ask them if they like staying there or if there are any issues you should be aware of.

Part of our california broker rules is that we are not allowed to discuss pricing, but I can give my recommendation to have a very detailed mgmt agreement in place with your owners  who takes care of Insurance payments, claims, repairs, tenant issues, HOA violations,  When do you pay the owners> Do you keep a reserve from them to pay for repairs?

I would issue a notice of termination (in accordance with your local L/T laws) the day after the closing and start fresh with your own screened tenant.Otherwise, you're setting yourself up to be very frustrated, I'm afraid.

We found out there are issues with the house, after our due diligence, that the previous property mgmt company did not address. 

With no way to estimate the rehab costs, that's what makes this a shot in the dark, but I think I could be "all in" for around 60k IF there is no structural issues.