In addition to public records, have title search co. order a "city/county lien search" which will uncover any unrecorded, pending violations, which will become liens.

If the house has hardwoods, I've seen some talking about uncovering those - although some say not to due to wear and tear. 

A wonderful claim, but it is the details and math that uncover the truth.I don't think he is trying to scam anyone.

The building inspection uncovered that the new house foundation is just sitting on top of the old one without any stabilizing measures.The crawlspace was largely inaccessible to the inspectors, but what they saw was mold/moisture issues.

Brokers alone are not “the market”, and apartment wholesalers pursuing their enlightened self interest will always uncover deals and be able to apply win/win solutions in a way that fiduciaries, like brokers, can't.There are plenty of apartment deals waiting for an apartment wholesaler to come and make market for it.

Make no mistake, it's a job, but if you can network with buyers and uncover deals it can be a very lucrative endeavor. 

The only time I would ever go back and offer less is if I uncovered defects I was unaware of during an inspection period in my contract.

So, I've been in search of my first multi-family and think I uncovered a gem, but I'm still new at running all the numbers so I was hoping to get more experienced eyes to take a look and see if I'm way off base, missing something, or if maybe I did find a genuinely good deal.Here are the main details:2,400 sq/ft brick duplex, 2b/1bath each unit, fully renovated, new hardwood throughout, tenants pay utilities, etc.List price: $79,900Expected purchase price: $72,000Initial investment:25% down: $18,000Closing costs, inspection, etc.: $3,000Improvements/Appliances: $5,000Total cash outlay: $26,000Annual expenses:Property taxes: $750Insurance: $700Annual maintenance: $500Advertising: $100Property management: $1540Mortgage: $3,28310% vacancy: $1400Rents:Going rents in the area for similar properties of this square footage in the neighborhood range from around $700-$950/month.

Personally, I learned to truly love knocking on doors and tap into my "inner Columbo" and become a good investigator of people's situations to uncover the facts and circumstances and especially the opportunities. 

The best way to explaining this is for you to download an IRR calculator spreadsheet or build your own simple one and play around with one.For what its worth most deals I deem meeting minimal IRR standards is 13-15% but you have to dig a little deeper to uncover the real placements of cashflows and capitalization events... and then dig even deeper to verify the assumptions such as occupancy, rent increases per year, and what reversion cap rate was used.Again I don't look for IRR cause its manipulated a lot instead I look at total return on a 5 year basis.