you will be loosing money every day. 

**************/mvc/auction/810929So buying it is a gamble that the owner never pays it off and you could foreclosure on the house.However if owner pays it off then you would loose everything over the $85 you pay?

In MA, there are 4 types of lead hazards that need to be abated.  1) Loose lead paint. 

To get this, if I can get it, I'd be paying more than those combined debts/liens, so hopefully the only ball they'll play is settling up from the excess foreclosure funds. 

Something that's not mentioned on this forum much though- watch out for midwestern markets that cash flow well w/ respect to price:rent ratio, but have an excess of rental housing supply relative to the tenant pool.

Try to investigate and perhaps popping sound from loose floors at night(screw subfloor not use nails).

@Stephen Meche Just be aware if you push back too hard they can easily go online and get an emotional support animal letter and you will loose the ability to charge an additional deposit, evict, or do anything else other than say "ok, you win". 

By doing this, you will hopefully have increased the value of the property in excess of your purchase price plus the repairs you put into it. 

I've been listening to BP podcasts and reading real estate books every day since that day.The genesis of my motivation to learn about real estate is to find a smarter way to utilize my excess capital to generate passive income.

However, your payday sounds substantial and if you step out, you loose the upside if buyer defaults and just have to step back in and fix it.