If the seller still will not comply you can file a notice on public record that's equivalent to a lien that would prevent the seller from being able to sell the home to anyone else.

You want a seasoned agent working on the preventive maintenance part of the deal and a good bank to walk you through the process.   

This way, you may learn the ropes and obtain practical experience without taking unnecessary risks.Examine many approaches to real estate investing, including wholesaling, home hacking, BRRRR (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat), and long-term rentals.

If it’s behind the wall I’m not sure if it’s their fault since they can’t clean, but also I could’ve fixed it sooner and prevented it from spreading.

The way I would prevent that is by having a partner on the phone checking the records while I'm literally sitting at the auction to avoid that slippage. 

I’d consider trying to look at the types of repairs you’re getting called out to this property for and see if there’s some way you can help reduce them either through preventative maintenance or through upgrades as units turn over.

That being said, it's important to be cautious of known brand/marketers mostly; oftentimes, they come with a lot of unnecessary overhead and just white-label their services out to other CPAs.

Unclear if the lien has expired, and if surplus funds would go to the COA According to the COA State laws i found this:Thelien is not effective 1 year after the claim of lien was recordedunless, within that time, an action to enforce the lien is commenced.The 1-year period is automatically extended for any length of timeduring which the association is prevented from filing a foreclosureaction by an automatic stay resulting from a bankruptcy petitionfiled by the parcel owner or anyother person claiming an interest in the parcel.

But the mythos around the "good deal" prevents so many first-time investors from buying at all because they're scared of looking dumb. 

A subject to deal is to prevent the property to be in foreclosure not to allow the seller to foreclose to you.Use other people's money and not your own.