Someone broke inside two of the units and clipped off copper pipes and some wiring while knocking down couple ceilings.

In the past few years we had multiple problems with pipe leaks, which the landlord attempted to fix without much success.

Underground pipes typically don't have coverage.

With an auction it will be advertised(pretty much) that its vacant and the copper pipes are free for the taking.They don't want to heat it for the winter, prepare it for sale, deal with inspection.

Chris,From what it looks like the 2nd floor bathroom under the floor pipe burst (80's copper yeah!)

Do you realize to replace all the cast Iron pipes in a slab home cost in excess of $20k.

Like a water pipe bursting and damaging all of their belongings.

The problem with many lots like this is we call them pipe farms.These lots often have high yearly taxes and HOA dues monthly.The question is can the land be held cheap enough with carrying costs to resale at a profit??

"they are good at giving reasons why they should be paid upfront something however (usually they tell us in will increase chances)"They are full of crap.Buyers are hungry for real lenders who can perform.If you are a mortgage broker with real lenders you will make plenty at closing.If people are looking for 100% loans and all this other type of exotic stuff it really doesn't exist unless you have a property worth say 2 million that you can get for 1 million but even then you have points and closing costs.It's all a pipe dream and buyers need to not fall for the scammers traps.They know these buyers are wanting to buy into a large deal above their means and "hit it big".They suck out the 10k to 15 they have or more selling a dream and then do not fund.

There's a lot of fools putting people in harm's way by moving them in to units that have serious safety concerns, like loose hot wires, no smoke detectors, failing exhaust ducting and more.