I spoke with 3 attorneys over the phone on the matter prior to making this thread and they either said it was on the seller or to be careful but they'd never had any cases regarding a similar situation. So I am posting on this free forum to see if anyone has been involved in a similar situation and could weigh in.
After speaking with the buyer yesterday I got the feeling he was hiding something and fished for more info out of him. The title work will be done Tuesday but from what I could get out of him is the house is in his and his parents name. They are both deceased but I don't think the probate is finished. So I'm thinking that would make his contract with the other guy invalid anyway as he couldn't sell them the house legally even if he wanted to.
I know there is $3300 taxes due on the property and I was thinking since he might not currently be able to sell it. As I don't consider myself that skilled of a real estate investor but would like to maximize this opportunity you mentioned maybe you or someone can weigh in on my idea for it. I was thinking of making some sort of contract that I will pay the taxes and fix up the property in return for managing it until the probate is finished. Once the probate is finished he would sell the property to me for an agreed upon amount. Considering he made a contract with the other guy and backed out of it are there any ways on how I could protect the money I put into repairing it? Putting some sort of lien on the house until the probate is finished and ownership transfers to me?