3rd bad deal in a row with inspections and title issues

[Chris M.]

Well I'm getting really discouraged.  I live in NYC, so being an out of state investor is a must.  I'm looking all over trying to find a decent deal that compares to some of the success I see here on BP.  First deal I had to walk away from due to defects on the title that the seller wouldn't fix.  Now I found 2  houses for 30k each which I thought were good deals and ordered inspections for them thinking it would be an easy win.  Then the inspections come back, with all sorts of problems.  3 layers of shingle roofing, making them uninsurable, open electrical sockets and bad wiring, cracks in the foundation, etc.  The seller isn't willing to reduce the price, and the inspector basically said I'd have to spend almost the same as building a new house to fix all the issues.  

The inspections saved me from losing even more, but I basically just threw away $800 in inspections on 3 properties I won't buy.  What can I learn from this, and how can I stop wasting on inspections only to find the deal would never work?  How do you weed out the bad sellers and wholesalers and find the ones that have really good deals?