I personally know 3-4 people who buy houses with cash, they are in the property rental business, however, they will make 20-30 offers and hope to get ONE accepted. They will offer only 40-60% of market price in hopes that someone is in financial trouble and needs to sell. They will put some amount of money into the property fixing things, rent it for a 2-3 years and wait for long term capital gains to kick in and sell it for a profit....one of the guys routinely owns 30-50 houses at a time....
This thing you’ve described is a common practice I’ve seen done. It’s not something that I would do, it’s morally wrong.
this if true would explain the flyers i see and absolve the chinese presuming the people you know are native born americans.
i wonder how these people get started. eg savings from their well paying day jobs over the years? inheritances? other (what?)?