They also report it to the inspector in town which I found it to be very strange...

I have no money to bring to the table, but I have no problem providing sweat equity and I'm also about to become a certified residential home inspector.

Perhaps a nice 1950's built bungalow.Always hire a 3rd party property inspector to give you an unbiased feel for the home.

I am (hopefully) close to closing on a SFR in Gloucester City, and the seller and listing agent made it sound like the City inspector for CO was pretty strict. 

The home inspector would check everything including the roof, plumbing, heater/furnace, attic, safety issues, radon and many more things. 

Also, lead inspectors use an x-ray gun to check all the layers of paint, so just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there.

The building inspector told one investor the house has be demolished, no option and another that he would work with the guy to fix it, but with major costs to fix, may be cheaper to demo and start over. 

Should i get an structural engineer to say it’s correct before i try to have an inspector come out ?

Sometimes these city inspector make things up as they go.

I had an unreliable estimate of rehab costs due to not having a trusted contractor / inspector available to help and give confidence (I am the one who ballparked the rehab, I was thinking roughly 65-70k).