Michael- you can say "yes, I want to buy it contingent on an inspection" but if it were me, I would steer clear of this one, at least for now.

With a few mortgages under 5%(prim res under 3%) I've finally gotten away from thinking early pay down and have to been steering those funds towards additional investments.

Not that it's ethical to steer buyers away from a 1% listing, but I promise you, it's not going to help. 

Unless the guy puts some of his own skin  (money) in the game I'd steer clear of agents and brokers.

Those relationships will be key to helping you get your project going and they can often help steer you towards consultants (engineers & surveyors) that do good work in the city. 

Only if its in a flood zone typically I try to steer clear of those areas because of the additional overhead with the insurance

In those states buyer has their own attorney and seller has their own attorney no one is steering.. out here in the west on the listings there is escrow preference and it goes that way most of the time..

The only reason I would steer you away from this deal is if you weren't planning to hold for less than 5 years. 

@Jonathan Orr I would always steer to tilt-up as long as you have the space to bring in heavy equipment to maneuver the panels.  

There are a few ways this can be accomplished, that we steer our clients towards.