In some instances they have equity based on market appreciation and in some cases they are underwater on the loan to value.After listening to a few podcasts I've heard of people buying entire portfolios from others who had planned on selling one at a time but were able to buy their entire portfolio at once. 

Normally, in instances like this I make my assumptions using Occam's Razor.Is this a common problem across the industry or did I just happen to run into an anomaly?

For instance if you are looking at homes in memphis TN or in Birmingham AL or Cleveland OH and you are paying 50-70k for a home then investors are going to be looking for 20-25% C/C returns, due to higher risks which i wont get into here.

For instance, some would flip it and you didn't even mention that.I will say this.  

I don't use it to value a property but I may consider in when picking a marker in general.For instance I have one out of state property that throws off cash with little to write off that income.

Use part of the reserves for a multi family deal,and part in the stock market like an index for instance.

Are they asking 800 a month for instance and location is same, superior, or inferior?

The insurance claims must be filed and pending, but the insurance company, at least in those instances, still honored the claim. 

in the instance that money was drawn during phase 2 and less than a month later the contractor has a stroke and cannot talk (and maybe not think too clearly) ?

@Wayne Brooks - I'll leave that for the appropriate attorney to decide....and I'll disagree with your comment.http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/who-can-cla......a relevant example of what I'm potentially looking at (I am "Jill" in this instance)...."