Never know, you might uncover a good private lender.

Paying for an inspection is also not a bad idea so you can uncover anything that might be easily visible to the eye. 

There are also the consultants who claim to be hard money lenders, then they offer to walk me through the process, step by step, finding the best deals, and uncovering the latest secrets of real estate investors for only $10k up front.  

Such questions help uncover important information and keep the conversation going.Once you know the true motivation behind the sale, incorporate that into your offer.

Other tips on uncovering potential issues with old houses?

They keep uncovering excellent deals in TX.

You want calls and the opportunity to uncover motivation to sell.Once you know there is motivation and preferably an asking price, you need to see the property to really know what you can offer.

Employing any number of tactics discussed on the boards (driving for $$$, bandit signs, etc) will help you uncover opportunities to make offers on.

My fear is that I spend the capital doing due diligence, and in this case even more if I need to go above and beyond with this red flag, possibly uncover something that the seller knew about, and walk away, out that capital.

One last thing, in google you can put anything with the word "scam" at the end and if there is any scams that have been reported under that incorporation, person's name or brand/product you will most likely uncover it that way.