I am new to flipping properties and I am wondering how common it is to be able to buy a pre-foreclosure that is not a short sale? I would think a distressed seller would not have much equity to sell. But if it is FHA, why would the lender short sale because HUD will pay off the loan?
So it seems very difficult to find a house from a distressed seller where you can pick it up well below market because there is no equity from seller and HUD or VA will pay of the loan instead of lender allowing a short sales. Is it that tough to find equity on a distressed property for these reasons? 
Yes, I agree with you. Most sellers going into foreclosure have little or no equity. That’s why getting good at short sales is a good skill to have. I’m sure their are pre-foreclosures out there with equity, but just harder to find.
But I am wondering how much can you short sale given that lots of these are FHA or VA? Can you short sale those? I just picked up an FHA on a bid to HUD where HUD had to buy the loan from the lender. So why would a lender with FHA on it go for a short sale?
There are millions of non-FHA and non-HUD loans out there. Why limit yourself to those two?
Are there really enough non FHA/VA loans out there in order to find that one can short sale MOST houses from distressed sellers? The reason I ask is because on the house I just contracted from HUD, I learned they paid it off to the lender at the market value, way above where I got it. So it made me wonder about the value of going after distressed sales because wouldn’t 50%+ of these be FHA/VA? So is it a better use of time to get them by bidding to HUD low after HUD gets it? Or are there really enough where the lender will go for a short sale?