I'm not sure how well versed they are in the trust details but it makes sense that it would be due to the step up basis so if there's a way I can approach them to give them a solution to that, that would be great. 

If you’re interested, feel free to reach out, and I can share his details with you.

The property owners will be asking $170k, but it needs an estimated $60-80k in repairs.

Verifying last 2 years of rental history and income extremely important to find the “best of the worst”.Make sure you understand the Class of properties you are looking at and the corresponding results to expect.The City of Detroit has 183 Neighborhoods we’ve analyzed.PM us if you’d like to discuss this logical approach in greater detail!

Does anyone have rule of thumb cost estimates for this kind of work?

I've seen it mentioned a couple of different places but never with that level of detail.

There was a case some years ago called the "Porter Case" discussed in detail: Porter Case 

We use mysmartmove (by transunion) for credit score and financial and criminal details, then compare that with the information provided on the application form to look for inconsistencies.

My property manager uses AppFolio, which is fine for transaction level detail and a few dashboards.

Seems very questionable. update: I spoke to a rep from the company who provided more detail on their turnkey project.