Finding a too good to be true deal, Help!

[Nicholas Tanner]

Hey, so I found a deal where a house is selling for $4,500 (yes I put that correctly). I visited the house today and it is a different type of house that it was listed for. It was listed as a studio, but when I went it was a 3/2 with a den. Other houses in that area are selling for about $25,000. It isn't a terrible neighborhood but they are very small houses (mostly 2/1's). There was a small fire in the downstairs den area so I'm thinking that it might have been a drug lab related fire because it is selling for so cheap. It needs a ton of work but in that city the houses that are 3/2's sell for about $55,000. I'm also worried about liens and back taxes. I contacted the owners of the home, and it is a real estate company from multiple states away so I'm worried about how the deal might go considering it wouldn't really be face to face. I'm worried that the company that bought it found a lien and is trying to dump it off on somebody.  I tried to look online and couldn't find any, but I couldn't find a good website to find one (I'll keep looking). If the house did contain a drug-related fire would it be doomed permanently because I assumed that investors completely avoided houses that did have drugs in them. The carpets are really bad and have weird lumps in them (Does anybody know what that could be?) but other than a fire downstairs, the terrible carpet and the back deck is falling apart, it is mostly a good house. I am considering hiring a home appraiser, would it be worth it or is this just a deal to totally skip? Thanks, guys! You're awesome.