Is the outside structure damage from water , dry rot, or whatever.

I could make anything look good in photos, yet there could be mold/rot/termites/broken pipes/aluminum wire/broken this/damaged that... all things that a photo won’t show, but very well may need to be addressed and may cost $$$.Seller may say roof doesn’t leak, and photos look ok.

When dry, it shrinks. 

Do I have to wait for the recording or am I home and dry ?

Sent contractors in and they found 3 gas leaks but then had to open up walls in those 3 places, patch gas line, then re dry wall and paint.

Not sure what you invested to make $100k, but I would try to rinse and repeat that until it dries up.

We updated the exterior by replacing bad siding, removing rotting carport, replaced rotten fascia boards, added a metal roof and repainted exterior and added solar screens.

The basement on the house is huge, clean, and dry.

@Jim Roach As you start peeling back the layers on this big stinky onion, I am sure you will find plenty of rot and incredible costs if you need to foreclose, evict, trash out, and repair the typically junky properties to junky borrowers that force someone to write a CFD on that need $30k to make then worth $30k.

Interesting fact, It was a dry city/county at the time.