Hard money lenders are more interested in the after-repair value (ARV) of the property than your personal finances.- Have some skin in the game.

A mold specialist will cost you and arm and a leg and likely recommend unnecessary repairs.

My $10k example was admittedly unrealistic.However, by way of further background, @Dustin Heiner wrote an excellent article on this topic on his website masterpassiveincome.com titled "What to Do When A Buyer Backs Out From An Assignment Of Contract".In it he suggests a scenario where the assignee decides not to proceed, perhaps after discovering a big ticket repair item that would cost significantly more than the portion of the assignment fee held in escrow. 

There are some sub 75k deals out there that would make great buy, repair, rent and hold properties but I'd prefer to be able to preserve my own capital as much as possible to knock out quite a few deals this year and in the next several years. 

They suggested while the property is vacant it is easier to repair, which costs 10-15k. 

Profit can potentially reach up to $200K depending on amount of repairs needed. 

Will not having the correct reserves to deal with 100 year old repair costs potentially cripple your portfolio for a couple years?

The repair service person did not show up Monday - so I told the tenant I was rescheduling for Tuesday.

Do you just make the repairs when they remove their own wall mount?

By having the repairs & maintenance in a separate account it gives us a gauge of how much we are spending on repairs.