You get to keep your contingency in place - in short you can still do a full inspection and still back out of the deal if you uncover something big, of course you can’t renegotiate for anything other than foundation/sewer but you can certainly back out.2.

Get an ESA I, that'll liklely result in needing an ESA II (due to the fact the ESA I will uncover the tank). 

Drop me a PM for links or you can find some recent posts about uncovering intrinsic value.  

A lot of investors (that are out of state or country) will opt for a full inspection here to uncover any major issues as well as help determine the reasonable  remaining lifespan of things that are more costly like the roof, siding, etc. 

Most of them won't work as-is but occasionally you'll find one the numbers start to make sense on if you make a few improvements and that's when you have to dig in further to see if you've uncovered a deal or not.

Today I am trying to figure out how to uncover dead bodies. 

No need in uncovering something that is that hard to find.

Condo issues never get better, they continue to uncover more and more sins and the costs continue to escalate.

So this aspect is where I add value in helping them uncover their goal(s).

I imagine that this is not an attractive property to too many investors and would need work done on a $1M property - I believe an inspection would uncover a lot of risk, especially on foundation issues being on a fault line too (cracks in walls and all over).The easy approach I am thinking would be to just share with him that I think we are too far apart in pricing and see if he opens up the door to negotiations.There are some value add opportunities to improve the property if it was to be sold in the future, and to increase rent upstairs the bathroom could be redone, dishwasher put upstairs, and perhaps a washer-dryer stand up unit (instead of sharing our machines).Let me know what other questions I can answer - trying to think through this methodically because I like the deal but the price is ridiculous - this would sell well between $700-800 I believe.