My observation is that your own home, like a car and other "assets", is actually a liability.

Cheers,-JackJack,Sound advice and great observation from Darius.

Is it your agent/deal finder’s own observations or does it usually take your contractor or inspector to find the big problems?

I ALWAYS write letters when I'm asking for terms like a deep discount plus seller financing.That said, I've spent a career in journalism and was a business writer for the Charlotte Observer, so writing a convincing pitch comes easily to me.

Here's what I've observed from my path:1. 

So I offer only my observations and opinions, but I wanted to contribute a little bit to the thought process tempered with 21 years of my wife having to deal with me ;- )For starters, you asking the question would seem that you really just need some validation for what you think you should do, and there is plenty of support for that position above, so I won't go very deep into, but the statement that actually stood out to me was the "He’s the type of person that hates his job and does nothing about it.

Not being seasoned, I may not be the best source of advice, but I'll give you my thoughts through my own observations and other people's advice I've read.

Long time reader and observer and finally prepared to make a move into REI. 

Another observation is the higher siding pieces that have completely separated don't look "warped" from heat but not correctly interlocked with the adjacent next row of siding.

I was reacting to your comment that you would struggle to finance this deal and that the value of the building is between 2.4 and 3.5$M..if you could buy-out the partner maybe financing through hard-lenders at the lower evaluation and then work with your mother and aunt to sell at the higher price that could be a great way to "flip" the property and then reinvest in a smaller property yourself.There are a couple of watchouts, including the fact that Hoboken is a declining market (at least according to Zillow and my personal observations) and that hard lending is a more expensive way of financing, but if you can make it work it could be a very lucrative flip and it would leave you with the cash needed to invest in another property somewhere else...Hoboken, similarly to all the NYC area, is very expensive and tough to have a good cash flow