Several times we have found them in the electrical outlets in the bedroom, paid for a chemical treatment for those spots and been fine.

You need an operating account fund for unexpected maintenance issues, dips in occupancy, etc., which can be 1% to 5% of the purchase price (depending on the current condition).If you are funding the renovations out-of-pocket, you will need to raise that.

Sometimes it will be all you have in the face of things as cruel as finding out that they left their animals behind without food or water when they skipped out, or as malicious as lying about you to everyone in the neighborhood for months, or as painful as discovering that yes, you do need to spring for four thousand bucks of unexpected expenses in January to change out the furnace that went bad at just exactly the wrong time.

Instead, we are putting this out, with proper contingencies (inspection, appraisal, financing, etc.) to give confidence to the seller that you intend to buy at your stated terms, barring any unexpected hurdles covered by your contingencies--which can ethically be negotiated should they arise. 

Joe Tomko - my aunt’s husband recently passed away unexpectedly in his early 60’s.

Miscellaneous other items (i.e. loose faucets, some outlets not working, sliding back door jammed, etc)The seller offered us a $5k credit, however we think it should be much higher (around 10K).

Hence the $1 tril in credit card debt and the $1 tril in student loan debt, and the fact that  a great majority of people in the U.S. could not pay for an unexpected $500 car repair today. 

I would use Craigslist, Ebay, Zillow, Trulia, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and any other outlets you can think of.

. +950 to expenses unexpectedly.

Regardless of the route you are taking, just remember that you still need enough cash reserves to handle the unexpected.