@Lindsey Thomspon Hard to say without seeing the house but 5k won’t get you very far in addressing issues of long term water penetration which appears to be what you’re looking at from your description.

Go to your local REIA and ask who is doing their mortgages, or post a geographic area and folks with notification keyword alerts will chime in to share who they like. 

I’d contact the title company I worked with and bam by 11 I’d have 60 years of title history...yup West coast have digital title plants.. and the other east coast the records are at court house and an abstractor has to collect them for a fee.. or you have to do it yourself.. keep in mind East coast records are far older than west coast.. we are babys .. most records start with Spanish land grants.. along with section and range descriptions.. with 90% of the searchs done in lot and block.Just like some states people actually survey an SFR before they buy it.. that simply is never done in a subdivision on the west coast if you asked for one realtors and others would look at you like your were from  Mars or maybe Venus

@Reid ShafenbergThere is no going back and un-doing that move.I would assume based on your description that the $5,000 distribution was reported by the 401(k) administrator as a taxable distribution to you. 

3- If there is a determinable factor for the difference between the three above descriptions, how do most Make Ready companies charge for them?

Research and define your geographic marketplace, your marketing plan and budget for generating leads, your sources of capital for both operating expenses and funding deals. 

If the property has equity, be prepared to sell before FC or have access to funds to payoff the loan.Andy thank you for the clear description and clarification on the subject to vs assumption definitions.

However, I'm looking to change that.Due to my location, I've been following discussions, podcasts, etc. on long-distance investing and am quite excited by the prospect of not being geographically bound to a certain market.

Just to make sure..... verify that the legal description in Your purchase matches the legal description in; the foreclosure action, the original mtg from the previous owner, and in the deed where the previous owner purchased.Surveyors rarely make this kind of mistake, but that is also possible.If all the previous legal descriptions are the same, dating back to when the house was actually built, are we to assume that whoever built the house just “guessed” at where to build it?

Our family has been renting a single-family home (see description/additional background below) for the last 2 years and are considering buying the property from the landlord via private sale.