I have never found a way to draw up this transaction since the price is unknown and the likelihood of a successful bid is small.

Lastly, if you rehabbing yourself to keep or flip vs wholesaling, I would have about 10-15% contingency in your estimate for the unknown items that pop up during rehab.

With the intent of your plan there is ZERO attractiveness to either of these two deals from any unknown investor and frankly even family members likely will not like this either.You need better reading material from folks who actually do put deals together, I feel like you have read too much from folks with pipe-dreams.

Are you saying that if we hired a pest inspection, you wouldn't use that information because it came from an unknown source?

I've been taking that to the bank for 19 years now.My potential loss is very small, my unknowns are large, and the potential ROI is huge.Isn't that a recipe for  'go ahead and try" ?

Where can i search for these liens and holds on the property.Would purchasing a title insurance for a house bought in cash protect me from unknown leans and legal issues?

It's not analysis paralysis you are describing... that generally comes from unknowns (i.e. am I budgeting enough for repairs/vacancies/etc)... the unknowns leave the analysis incomplete and ultimately result in an inability to move forward do to fear.Numbers are numbers, you can only analyze them once... 5 + 5 = 10 and it's impossible to be paralyzed by that analysis.What you're describing is an inability to create a weighted decision process.  

We live across the street from the only funeral home in town, maybe they think it is a bed and breakfast before going to the great unknown?!?!?

Some people bought homes and property here over the years counting on train service, but I do not push that aspect of things because it really is still an unknown.

Which makes you at the very least an unknown quantity to a broker, and at most a time-waster.Put yourself in their shoes: they're in the biz to make a buck.