Does the siding contain asbestos?

[Michael Hausfeld]

Hello, we are looking at purchasing a total gut rehab project. The neighborhood looks like it was built in 1940's. The seller is a contractor who bought it a few years ago and gutted the place, then put it on the market. He has been trying to sell for a few years now, dropping the price steadily each year. It's now in a reasonable range, but we were wondering why this person decided to sell and not follow through fixing it. 

We noticed the siding is different than anything we have seen before.. seems like asphalt, but might be covering something else. 

We contacted a few testing agencies but I don't think we can get it tested legally until it's our property. Does anyone have experience with this who would be willing to comment? Does anything in the picture look like it would contain asbestos? 

As part of our rehab we would have to remove at least some of it, so we wouldn't want to be stuck with a huge bill we didn't account for.

Thanks!