Hey ZK.
The only part I wanted to comment on at this time is the licensing part.
Until this year, it was illegal for an investor buying a property in NOD or NOT status to use an agent. This was due to a well intentioned but problematic belief that agents would just be taking advantage of distressed sellers.

Technically the law said that the agent needed to carry a certain type of bonding (which did not exist). This year, inevitably (considering the number of nods and nots), their was a court case that largely nullified this. I will ask counsel about it and repost more tomorrow if you like.

The point is a license used to be kind of a dangerous thing when dealing with foreclosures.