What are the biggest red flags to look out for in a contractor and how can I detect them before it’s too late?

Inspectors here use thermal imaging as part of their work and are able to detect moisture.

At this point, thanks to Detective @Jeff Cagle, I think we can conclude with certainty that Michael Quarles is a scammer and a thief, and deserves some accountability.

Turns out the person scanned the mail pieces backwards and so it came back as no stamp detected.

You have potential with a little detective work to find a good address for the seller.

Unless you like looking at blurry snapshots of bank statements and asking for the umpteenth for the seller to send both sides of the title.One way to at least keep things interesting - think of yourself as a detective who's been given a bunch clues.

The weeks after that became and odyssey of detective work trying to figure out what was happening.

You'll learn a lot from the ones that they, not you, made work.Alas, many new people, opportunity detectives who pre-maturely refer to themselves as investors, find a single property, try everything in the world to squeeze something out of it themselves, but fail to monetize it and eventually loose interest.It's still about attitude AND action.

As a real opportunity detective, a guy like this (geez, I HOPE that's a guy's voice) leaving a message is now considered a terrorist threat and is pretty easy to get prosecuted and incarcerated for 6 months or so. 

Then after the 1,500th call you detect a motivated seller.