Looking for advice on

[Douglas Costello]

I recently sent out my first direct mail campaign and I found a motivated seller right off the bat.  She is out of state and not making payments on the house.  The bank has moved in and winterized the property but I don't believe that it is in foreclosure yet (the home owner claims it isn't).

This is located in Taunton, Massachusetts if anyone is interested.

The woman owes 135k on it and simply wants it off her hands and a Realtor gave me comps for 230k-240k ARV. I ran estimates on all the repairs and came out with around 25k in repairs. So far, so good.

 However!  The property had been winterized and the power is shut off so I couldn't test the electrical or plumbing (the electrical looked updated - but I am not an expert).  The seller claims that major systems are all working - for what that is worth (not much).  And, I also don't trust the comps the Realtor gave me.  I think they are over inflated.  The houses he comped had full basements - this house doesn't have a full basement.  The house also seems pretty small to me, and the comps were a bit bigger.

So... lots of unknowns and imho - over-inflated comps.  Possibly a deal, but possibly not a deal.

I had networked at a local REIA with an experienced flipper and I brought him the deal to take a look at. He didn't seem interested due to the unknowns with the plumbing and electrical.

Here is my Question:

Should I attempt to market this property to buyers while being completely transparent with the shortcomings of the property and the unknowns?  OR should I take a hint from the experienced flipper who looked at the property and not market it.  

I am NOT interested in finding some newbie investor and selling him a lemon.  I am NOT interested in wasting a bunch of people's time by marketing a bad deal to buyers.

I am interested in seeing if another experienced flipper sees potential in the property the first flipper didn't see.  I am interested in working with another flipper who works on a tighter margins and wants work.  

What do you guys think?

Thanks in advance for any input you can give on this :)