This total is about 25%, so your 10% security margin seems low.At 5% down you would want a fairly healthy reserve fund for unexpected high cost maintenance or vacancies as you have very little equity available.As it is, you're catching a falling knife in Grand Prairie and it is certainly conceivable that property prices and rents could fall a further 5%+ over the next 12 months, putting you in negative equity and cash flow territory. 

They will open escrow, do a title search, lien search, issue a title insurance policy, calculate pro-rations, order payoffs, prepare a settlement statement, record the deed, etc. as part of the closing process.I AM ONLY EXPLAINING THE PROCESS HERE...THE FOLLOWING IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS LEGAL ADVICE, WHICH I AM NOT QUALIFIED OR LICENSED TO GIVE - CONSULT AN ATTORNEY FOR THAT.But, yes, assuming your contract calls for clear title (a good example is the Florida Realtors Vacant Land Contract, paragraph 7), then yes - you could conceivably make an offer using similar terms, and once you and the seller have agreed to terms and signed the contract, you could take the contract to the title company and they would work their magic.The title company would let you and the seller know what they uncover during the title search, lien search etc., and the onus would then be on the seller to settle any outstanding liens at closing (assuming they are less than the purchase price, they could come out of the seller's proceeds on the settlement statement and be paid by the title company).

I know it is not going to be easy but, why should I worry, i'm a bigger pockets member ;) Seriously, I had a few measure in place before even conceiving this endeavor. 

It may depend on what your expectations for an investment are but, conceivably, you'll get better appreciation in Journal Square, given that market prices there are generally still lower than JC Heights (although if you found a screaming and/or off-market deal in JC Heights, that changes the calculus).

Its access is via a ladder-like stairway (if that makes sense, kind of halfway between the two) and I wonder if the loft will create liability issues although there are very good handrails there is still an edge that someone could conceivably fall off of if they were being extremely careless.

So get advice on your options and approach a lender without pre-conceived ideas.

Conceivably, these siblings would either list and sell the asset to your investor (for which you receive commission #1) or you bring in a developer/syndicator.In the second scenario, siblings would partner up and contribute their equity into the formal or informal partnership and the developer/syndicator would bring experience (successful track record), and other resources including builders, design architects, engineers, and entitlement experts for zoning and building approval, depending in the scale of the project.A third choice exists whereby siblings attempt development themselves.

I've conceived of notions such as letting the taxes go delinquent and then buying doing the tax lein foreclosure process on it?

Renters will have to leave by this upcoming mid-summer.If this is allowed to stand, the units would be for a very different market for investors, negating not just long-term rental landlords (like my aspirations), but conceivably AirBNB-like models.   

That's what most of them say.....Fun fact about myself:I am 1 inch shorter than when my youngest daughter was conceived and then born....motorcycles are FUN and apparently dangerous, but I can't wait until I can send my two girls off to college and buy another bigger one....2 wheels are life!