@Ed Kahle , I don't think you'll have much success creating motivation, so just focus on finding more leads until you uncover motivation.  

It is not surprising to me given the scope your business has that you seem to do you uncover these hopefully unusual types of situations. 

LOLCome on, list your favorite 4 out of 12 ways to uncover owners hiding out.

That said you did everything right and limited your liability (I am not sure how much out of pocket expenses you incurred but I usually include in my contracts that I might get some financial relief on my inspections if I uncover a like same disaster and I put out $ for further investigation).

Fortunately the 1910 tax bill wasn't much money and there was no title insurance involved.In a case where I bought a property got title insurance owned about 5 years and sold it, there was a title claim uncovered by my buyer's title search.

You may uncover critical information or be able to cut your learning curve.

It was like uncovering the matrix for me.

It really makes the place look updated for our future tenants.We started a pest treatment schedule so that they will be clear for when we start leasing down the road.While we are getting our security system in order, we put up a dummy camera facing the dumpster in addition to posting two yellow signs that say "smile, your on camera".Building Permit UpdateStill working on the permits required to do the remaining interior work such as the closing up uncovered walls, ceilings, plumbing, electrical insulation etc.

Could there be uncovered violations you are not aware of?

It was worth the wait.It was 3 years before we decided to look for our next property - and that took about 3 months to uncover.