When you examine the properties during your due diligence, you may discover an issue that will ruin the entire investment, making it a bad deal. 

That said, when we examine a property with oil heat, we will budget the cost of converting it to either gas or electric in our offer analysis.Our reasons to move from oil are as follows:1) environmental and health liability of storing large quantities of fuel oil (essentially diesel) on-site.  

Hello all I just passed my real estate exam in Maryland and need to find a broker.

Examine owings mills mall circa 1995 vs owings mills mall circa 2015.

That being said you get time to "examine" the property for issues etc during the due diligence.

If the house was built in, or after, 1968, there is the possibility it contains aluminum wiring - you can easily identify this by looking in the panel or pulling several outlets/switch out of a box and examining the wire ends.  

I'd be closely examining exterior walls for signs of cracks and interior walls for signs of repairs.

Buying an REO gives all the control to the bank (or Freddie in this case).If you use your own title company you will pay a lot more, but you get more control over closing and a more trustworthy examination of the deed.

And these days, the HML is looking at the borrower's credit - even if you say it is to be owned by your LLC, your credit will be examined.

And if Murphy pops his head up on a 200K property that can easily be gone and you'll be spinning your wheels for nothing.You also need to examine your own skills and your ability to flip a sow's ear into a silk purse.