The problem I have seen across the board is that most agents simply don't understand the principles of investing, what investors are looking for or how to walk a property and adequately estimate repair costs.Unfortunately, most of these skills are only acquired through adequate study and conducting your own renovations. 

You might want to see if the county has written rules for how the sale is to be conducted. 

I conduct several hundred assignment auctions a year - there are many moving parts that make up a successful assignment.

I have conducted my due diligence and found everything about this potential partner to be on the up and up.

A market analysis will be conducted to ensure the property is being leased at market value.

When some thing is made illegal in one state, it bears checking to see if it's legal in the state you want to conduct business in.

I used and set up LLC's, S Corp's, and even C Corps to conduct business.Nothing unusual, for LLC's, you select how you're to be taxed, so I selected to be taxed as a partnership.

Who is typically the trustee conducting the sale?

The sellers are offering us a credit on the purchase price, but will not fix damage themselves, nor will they allow us to conduct our own estimates with our own contractor. 

For example, suppose I had an appraisal conducted with a proposed floor plan of a building I'm renovating after a fire with no offices built (not a shell but just a finished, open floor plan) and the cap rate in that appraisal was 9.0%.