If the house is empty or has a crapload of crap laying around the house, how do I negotiate a lower price?

About two years ago the wife and I were cooking outside on the grill when I noticed the house behind mine, well across my back yard had a bunch of crap in the yard and it looked vacant.

This is all very general, would need to know specifics to get into more detail.If you feel good about your ARV analysis, just as a precautionary measure, I would add a 10% "Oh-crap" contingency fund to your expenses if you haven't already, and see if the numbers still work for you.A more experienced flipper than I should probably chime in and let you know if there's a detail you've forgotten.

Our broker in Knoxville refers to C properties as “crap” properties, but loves to invest in this type of asset because of ability to cash flow and reposition to a higher class.

Crap...

The Foreclosure auction is a crap shoot, and has all the risks associated with that. 

It's only an idea right now and it might be a crap one but at least its a direction that I want to pursue.

No crap!

That line about the stairs not being up to code would irritate the crap out of me coming from a tenant. 

Realistically you can do wholesaling by throwing that money into direct marketing but it's a crap shoot and frankly you'd be better off waiting until you're in a better spot to truly invest.