I will take extra precaution to mitigate risk. 

If so any precautions I should take?

CGL will not cover everything, so if someone trips within our construction zone when we have our cones and safety precautions, we are not liable, no cones, we are.

I agree that it makes sense to have it as a precaution, I guess my hesitation comes from other appraisals we have gotten (while doing bank financing) that used terrible comps and regurgitated census bureau info for an area far too general to be of any value, and ended up just coming in at the purchase price anyways.

You take some precautions to Marshall their possessions and use 3rd party services to distance you. 

What are the key pre-cautions and observations to keep in mind before making an offer7.

If you have properties that are currently located in high-risk areas and haven't taken precautions to prevent wildfire, some great tips from the National Fire Protection Association can be found here: http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/for-consume...

If so, doesn't that support the claim that rentals are relatively safe in a recession (if you've taken the right precautions)?

In cases like this, there's no precaution anyone can take.

This is not legal, unless it is disclosed be ready to do business, since you are paying cash, have that cash ready; get credit lines, borrow money and put it in account for your auction business, have partners (preferable family) with the cash ready to useget your name on the mailing list of all of the auction companies in your area so that you are notified of salestalk to the auction associate in charge to try to get some inside information about the sale; is it owner ordered, bank auction, foreclosures, will they accept a precaution offerask questions, what is the reserve (sometimes they will tell you, sometimes they won't, what is the balance of the mortgage, if your are the high bidder will you get the property free and clear of any liens what is the first deposit, what is what is the second deposit is there interest on the high bid from the day of sale to day of settlement (this could be very expensive), there are times when due to a legal situation, the trustee can't settle the property immediately and it may take 6 months or longer, this means that you may be paying 1% or more per month until settlement.how soon will you have to settle, 5 days, 10 days, 30 dayscan you have possession immediately (you should get this, it will give you a head start on cleaning the property up and prepping for re-sale or rentalwill the auction company disclose any known defects (septic system failure, well failure, termites, water problems...etc,ask for a copy of the auction contract and forms you will be required to sign and read every word......make sure you understand what you are committing to do (many of those contracts have hidden clauses that will hurt youwill they accept your business or personal check (try to get approved to use your checks (most auction companies require certified funds, if that is a requirement, get a certified check made out to you)make sure you have good comparable sales data, you need to know what the value is and what you can sell it for immediately if you have to, try to understand the repair cost alsoyou may want to consider selling the property (assignment) before settlementset your high bid price and don't go highercheck out your competition at the sale, most of these folks are professional buyers (predators) and will out bid you or give you a chance to out-bid yourself......be careful, try to get to know them (you will see them at every auction sale, they are really good at what they do.