From what I understand about deductions these should be done after the property is officially "for rent," right? 

I can't imagine your calculations add up the same after you put them up to a contractor's, or do you make your offer with a certain margin of allowable difference in mind or do you make a ballpark offer or an offer 'minus repairs' before your official offer after you've brought your contractor over?

Quite simple....go to either county's clerk of court, official records search.  

I have seen some on this post ( not Chris/Curt) offer proformas with 7% or 8% vacancy but when the actual location is researched it was running 16% officially with many boarded up.

I am excited to officially be a part of the Bigger Pockets community!

It is SOP in these cases to have another agent in your office be the "official" buyer's agent, to avoid this. 

But I will further contact my local city officials to find out if i will run into problems with this.

Property #1 closed Dec 2014 and was officially on the market May 1st 2015. 

Hilarious...but atleast they 'tabled' my 'dangerous' building for a little bit, I got a lot of work to do on that place, sometimes I wonder did I do right getting into Muskegon, like Mark Elliot said, after I bought my property there, then I've also heard stories about Muskegon officials being corrupt, but I'm still wondering are they corrupt or just looking out for their city...but this is the 1st city that I got a notice for lawn care, that if I didn't get it done, they would charge me $90/hr, and I was like wow!!

If the will was filed with the clerk, you'll be able to obtain a copy of the official will and read it.