Can the lowest bidder provide the speed and quality you are looking for at lowest price because he has the lowest overhead, or because he lowballs bids to get the work, and then nickels and dimes you to death with up-charges for all the unforseen "problems" he uncovers.

Or you could go to a title company and pay for a title search which could uncover other liens or first and second mortgages.

If you have uncovered something that is not out on the market I may not have seen it. 

If you have an inspection done and it uncovers a repair that you hadn't factored into your purchase price you could ask the seller to fix it or lower your offer price and the seller would have the opportunity to agree with it or cancel the contract.

I gurantee you that if you even spent a month doing just that you'll be 10000% smarter about your Orange County market and uncovering the insights you need to find and flip the right deals that make you money.

What are the conditions that allow a buyer to get their earnest money deposit back during the due diligence period, if they decide to back out of the deal due to issues uncovered during inspection? 

If the conversation was to end there and for some reason your judgement was clouded that day, leading to the purchase of the property and later uncovering that a gas station was previously on site.

Pretty conservative considering the assignee will have 110K in equity after the rehab.You just made 30k without lifting a finger, lining up contractors, arranging financing, not to mention the possibility of uncovering something detrimental to your profits.

However, I normally have my realtor bake in enough time in the contract for due diligence to have inspection done, in an effort to ensure that there are no severe problems masked.In the event a problem is uncovered during due diligence period, or you simply don't like the house for whatever reason now that you have seen its innards, then, you can reject the deal and reclaim your EMD as a result.I have done this on several occasions.Lastly, if the property has tenants this will be good for them as well, so that less people will be walking through their living areas.

Only working the numbers on each investment properly will uncover your gains.